BOCES wind turbine doesn't save money

I see that the Jeff-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services received $163,760 to build a wind turbine of its very own. I know Indian River is drooling to get a wind turbine of its very own too.

Evidently this is the new must-have for schools around the north country, regardless of how local populations keep working to zone them out of their communities. It's OK though, these are small turbines. My point is mathematical. The amount of money being spent on building this turbine will then save BOCES $6,135 a year in energy bills.

At that rate, it will take 26.6 years before the turbine has saved enough money to have paid for itself. After 26.6 years of operation, it will finally begin to really save anybody any money. However, I keep hearing that wind turbines have a life expectancy of only about 20 years, so it is doubtful that the turbine will last long enough to break even on its construction to say nothing of really saving anyone but BOCES money.

Who is really paying for this? I assume that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority providing the funding is itself funded by our tax dollars. Perhaps they should save a lot of trouble and simply send a yearly check to BOCES for $6,000 to help them with their energy bills. Just skip the turbine altogether.

This investment of taxpayer dollars comes from New York, the same state that is supposed to run out of money by December. I no longer wonder why.

James Oxenford

Three Mile Bay