Pine commissioners are expected to decide next week whether to install a wind turbine in the township park.

The turbine would supply power to the municipal building or facilities in the park and could power the community center that is being planned.

That would be free electricity, township Manager Gary Koehler was quick to point out.

Pine has been awarded a $62,800 grant from Pennsylvania's Energy Harvest program to cover half of the purchase and installation of a 50-kilowatt turbine. The township's $62,800 share is earmarked in the 2005 budget, Koehler said.

"Based on rate averages, we'll have payback in 10 years. This unit has a life span of 30 years, so that's 20 years of free electrical power," he said.

Koehler said the turbine is a good fit for other reasons, including the fact it can be placed within the township's 105-acre park. "We're fortunate to have such a large park. The unit doesn't have to be directly in anybody's back yard.

"This is a single, compact unit. It sits on a 120-foot, self-supporting pole. This is not the kind of huge windmill you read about in California," he said.

Koehler said some people have raised questions about noise and the type of fencing that would be placed around the turbine.

"We'll report on those issues at the Feb. 22 meeting, and then the board will vote. We are under a time constraint with the funding," Koehler said.

The project has the support of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, headquartered near Albany, N.Y.

Larry Sherwood, the council's manager, said the type of concerns being raised in Pine are typical.

"In most cases, the noise from a turbine in this size range is no greater than the noise of wind itself. The manufacturers have been able to make significant improvements," Sherwood said.

The council conducts independent tests on various manufacturers' units and publishes data on noise and other factors. Sherwood said contact information is available on its Web site: www.irecusa.org.

The 50-kilowatt turbine uses only wind to generate electricity. Such renewable energy sources are the focus of the state's Energy Harvest program, said Helen Humphreys, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"This initiative was started by Gov. Ed Rendell in 2003 to build a clean, efficient energy industry within the state," she said.

As of the end of 2004, the DEP had awarded more than $10 million in grants in support of projects involving power from wind, sun, water, or waste coal, Humphreys said.

Only two projects were funded in Allegheny County in the 2004 awards, she said. One involves a grant to Carnegie Mellon University and the other is the grant to Pine.

On a larger scale, the state is supporting a proposal by the Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa to build a manufacturing facility in Cambria County that would employ up to 235 people and would produce blades for wind turbines.

Plans call for Pine to buy the wind turbine from Bergey Windpower Co., of Norman, Okla., and to install it late this year in the township park. The unit needs to be near power lines because the township intends to sell excess electricity to a power company.

Koehler said he and other Pine officials are hoping the wind turbine will be installed.

"We applied last year and didn't get the grant. Now that we have help from the state, we'd like to do this," he said. "If we can be a demonstration of this type of alternative energy, it's one of the best things we can do for our children."