Joshua Rochman (left) and Devon O'Shea, of Contractors Building Supply in Copemish, install the Windspire vertical-axis wind turbine at Jill Bentgen's house Wednesday, December 10. Moran Township resident Jill Bentgen is trying to save the environment while saving a little green in her pocketbook. But as the saying goes, "You've got to spend money to make money."

Ms. Bentgen spent almost $10,000 to install a vertical-axis wind turbine at her home on Pte. La Barbe Road last week. It is the first of its kind to be installed in the Upper Peninsula and is rated to generate up to 2,000 kilowatt hours per year at average wind speeds of 12 miles per hour; about one quarter of a home's annual electric needs.

"At this spot, I think we're going to do more than that," she said. "I won't know what it'll generate until I run it for a year, but I think it's going to be over that."

The 30-foot-tall turbine with nine airplane-grade aluminum blades was manufactured by Mariah Power of Reno, Nevada, which signed a five-year contract last month with Manistee-based Mas- Tech Manufacturing to begin volume production and distribution of the "Windspire."

Although Ms. Bentgen's Windspire was not manufactured in Manistee, full production is expected to begin at MasTech in March, creating more than 40 new jobs, with more expected in the next year.

"This is the only product I know of that lets people worldwide reduce their carbon footprint on our environment," John Holcomb, Mas- Tech Division general manager, said in a statement.

Ms. Bentgen is not sure how much energy the turbine will save her right away. A separate electrical meter was installed at her house to allow her to track the amount of energy the Windspire produces each month. Any excess energy produced will be sold back to electrical provider Edison Sault Electric of Sault Ste. Marie.

What's more, she plans to apply for a federal tax credit for renewable energy units, which is good for 30% of the qualified investment, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site.

Ms. Bentgen paid extra to have a larger, steel-reinforced, cement base installed in case she decides to switch to a larger turbine in the future. Mariah Power and MasTech plan to manufacture a larger Windspire model able to produce more than twice as much electricity.

Once the concrete base was poured, the company's Michigan distributor, Contractors Building Supply of Copemish, assembled and installed Ms. Bentgen's turbine in about two days. Installer Joshua Rochman said he was impressed that the disassembled pieces of the turbine fit entirely in the back of his work pick-up truck.

Ms. Bentgen researched wind turbines for almost three years before making her decision to purchase one.

"I wanted to see the test results for a year before I decided," she said. "Then I found out that this was the same company that was coming to Michigan, that they were actually starting a production facility here in Manistee. I called back to see if I could get one."