A 110-year-old fifth-generation apple orchard is now one of the most forward-thinking family businesses around, with the addition Wednesday of three wind turbines that are expected to offset nearly all of the farm’s energy use.
“It’s Westport’s first wind farm,” said Paul Gay, the owner of Westport-based Aerostar, which designed the 140-foot turbines for Noquochoke Orchards.
Noquochoke isn’t the first Westport business to install multiple wind turbines, but the three lattice-base towers along a bend in Drift Road are hard to miss. Each turbine has only two blades, a design that Gay said saves material costs and eliminates some force on the structure.
A small crowd gathered at the orchard on Wednesday, when Northeast Windpower, another Westport company, installed the turbines. The structures were assembled on site last fall, and when the conditions were right — not too windy, ground solid enough to support a massive crane — the towers were lifted into [...]

Original post by Grant Welker