Jamie Quint's newest business venture sits on a 12-foot-by-12-foot concrete slab and rises 120 feet into the air. When a breeze kicks up, its 11-foot blades turn to face it and begin to spin.

"It's not so much a monetary thing, as a help-the-world kind of thing, for our children and like that," Quint said on a recent morning at his sign shop on Cline Avenue, just outside Schererville.

With more than 30 years in the sign business, Quint, 49, said he's earned the right to give free reign to a longtime passion for alternative energy.

He just completed installation of a 10-kilowatt Bergey wind turbine to power his Signs OverNite workshop and home. Both are housed in a burgundy-sided, three-story barnlike building on land that has been in his family for more than 70 years.

His wind turbine is believed to be the first to be sited in Lake County since federal and state tax credits for personal alternative energy sources evaporated in the early 1990s.

Getting it up and running was a two-year odyssey of securing the necessary permits and finding the right people to install the tower and turbine, he said.

But in the deal, he has made his new passion his new business venture, becoming the first Bergey wind turbine dealer in the region. Bergey Windpower Co., of Norman, Okla., is the world's leading supplier of small wind turbines.

"I really want to educate people and get the word out about alternative energy," Quint said. "People don't realize electricity is made from burning coal, which is just about the dirtiest thing out there."

It hasn't been easy.

Quint worked with the Lake County Planning Department for two years on zoning regulations and codes, and then obtaining permits. Neighbors on the rural roadway had concerns about noise, birds and other issues, but were satisfied after getting explanations at a zoning meeting, he said.

A big factor in Quint's decision to take the big step was Northern Indiana Public Service Company's net metering program. Initiated in 2005, it allows customers with renewable energy systems such as wind or solar to "sell" unused electricity back to the utility in the form of bill credits.

NIPSCO now has three customers in northern Indiana on the net metering program, according to spokesman Tom Cuddy.

NIPSCO has installed two electric meters at Quint's home and sign shop -- one for electricity coming in from NIPSCO and another for excess power Quint sends out onto the grid.

A lot of customers and friends think the turbine is a decoration for the Quint homestead. When they find out its purpose, the questions come in gales, Quint said.

"How much does it save you?" everyone asks.

Nothing initially, Quint has to admit.

He thinks it will take six years or more to get his $50,000 investment back. It was $27,000 for the wind turbine, $14,000 for the tower, and about $9,000 for everything else, he said.

Those who buy wind turbines from him may get away for less, as they won't have to spend as much on county codes and zoning standards. He's already done that.

Quint's ambition is to put all of it -- permits, purchase and installation -- in one package for customers.