Kevin Santos holds one of the three 11-foot blades as Scott Fryer, co-owner of Northeast Windpower Corp., of Westport, and Barry Beaulieu, also of Westport, attach it to the main housing of the Bergey Wind Turbine that will sit atop a 100-foot tower.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

WESTPORT — If all goes well, the new wind turbines at Santos Brothers Farm could generate at least a third of the electricity used by the family-owned dairy farm and cheese-making business.

The two 10-kilowatt turbines were installed March 11, one at the Main Road property owned by the four Santos brothers and the other at their property on Adamsville Road. Each machine stands 100 feet high and together they should go a long way to powering the farm that has been in the Santos family for three generations.

The turbines were installed by Northeast Windpower Corp., a fledgling company that has put up one other turbine in Westport and is in talks to erect more. Scott Fryer, co-owner of the year-old business based in Westport, said the Santos properties, which sit up on a ridge near the Westport River, are perfect places for turbines.

“These are exceptional wind sites,” he said. “They’re the type of places where you can get blown sideways.”

Northeast Windpower is taking advantage of a favorable regulatory environment in Massachusetts to sell and install small turbines to individual homeowners and businesses. Although larger projects, such as the Town of Hull’s multiple turbines or the proposed Cape Wind project, have attracted more attention, Fryer says the interest in residential turbines is growing.

“It feels like we’re on the cusp,” he says.

Fryer and his partner Paul Gay approached the Santos brothers last year after a deal the family reached with another supplier fell through.

Karl Santos said his family started looking at alternative energy sources as a way of cutting the farm’s utility costs. At the same time, he and his brothers started Shy Brothers Farm, using milk produced by their herd of Holstein cows to make artisanal cheese based on a French recipe.

The cheese-making operation was started to secure the long-term future of the farm by finding another source of income. Karl Santos says the decision to put up wind turbines is another way of keeping the farm going.

“We’re looking at different ways to save the farm,” he said. “And it’s renewable energy. It’s good for the environment.”

The turbines purchased by the brothers were manufactured by Bergey Windpower, an Oklahoma company that sells its products across the country and overseas. Each machine should produce about 12,000 to 15,000 kilowatt-hours a year, from one-third to half of the farm’s electricity usage.

Purchasing and installing a small turbine generally costs about $65,000, said Fryer. Though he declined to say how much the Santos brothers have paid for their turbines, he did say that with reimbursements from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the U.S.Department of Agriculture they could break even within two years.

Fryer said it’s a wise investment.

“I think the price of electricity will make a jump that will make people gasp,” he said.

akuffner@projo.com