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Smithville family erects wind turbine

Neighbors came over with handshakes and smiles. A pastor from the family’s church led a group prayer. The family of four shared hugs and posed for family photos in front of the 60-foot metal structure.

The installation of a wind turbine on the Gupta family’s rural Smithville property was quite the celebration.

Progress and pride — that’s what the March 23 event signified for Dr. Ganesh Gupta, his wife, Debbie, and their two daughters, Autumn, 12, and Laletha, 10.

Progress in a mission to leave a smaller carbon footprint. Pride in the ability to help lead the renewable energy effort.

Dr. Gupta has always had a passion for energy efficiency.

“Efficiency should be celebrated. The more efficient you are, the more you can do with the excess funds and excess resources,” Gupta said while watching a winch erect a wind turbine on his family’s 120-acre property.

When the wind blows, the 60-foot, 5.5-kilowatt wind turbine from The Energy Savings Store in Lenexa, Kan., will power the family’s home. Estimates from the energy store say the Guptas’ electric bills could drop by 30 percent. The investment could pay for itself in 15 years, according to the estimates.

Without a 2007 Missouri law, Gupta said he couldn’t have considered his own wind turbine. The net metering law allows electric meters to run backward when sources such as wind turbines produce power.

Other benefits: If the wind turbine produces more energy than the family uses, they can sell the excess energy back to the electric company, Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative. Those who purchase wind turbines also can receive a 30 percent federal tax credit, which puts the wind turbine cost at $17,000 to $80,000.

Gupta’s decision to purchase the wind turbine when he did was influenced by a work connection. An orthopedic surgeon, he bought the wind turbine through Susan Brown, the mother of a patient and the energy store’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“I just got one of these at my house, although mine is about half this size,” Brown, who lives in Dearborn, said during the Guptas’ installation.

The Guptas’ wind turbine could be the second residential wind turbine in Clay County. The Guptas request to the Clay County planning and zoning department to erect a wind turbine was the county’s second request of its kind.

Gupta dreams of what could happen if more people went the renewable energy route.

“If, say, 3 percent of Platte-Clay customers do what we’re doing, do you drop the amount of time before you have to build a new power plant?” he said. “It’s not about being green. It’s about, how can we get the country to a point where we’re not in debt to oil companies?”

The Guptas’ property is a better fit for wind power than solar power, which is why the family went the wind energy route.

Down the road, the family does want to add solar panels to their home.

For now, it’s all about the wind.

“We ask you, God, as our creator and sustainer, that you add wind,” George Lakatos, pastor of Grace Community Church, said as the family members bowed their heads in prayer just prior to the installation.

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