There's been a lot of discussion about commercial wind farms and residential wind towers in Monroe County. But the village of Hilton is taking on the topic of municipal wind power.

Village trustees have been studying the possibility of building wind towers and selling the electricity through the Hilton's municipal electric corporation.

"We're learning a lot about it," says Trustee Larry Speer.

Municipal electric corporations exist to provide residents of a community with electricity at rates cheaper than if they were to go through a commercial provider. Currently the village buys power from other providers and sells it to its customers.

"We thought maybe we could start generating our own electricity," Speer says.

Hilton's municipal electric corporation serves about 1,600 customers in the village and the town of Parma. At peak, the customers consume about three megawatts of power, Speer says. The towers that the village is considering would have a peak production capacity of 1.5 megawatts minimum, so officials want to install five of them.

"We have a potential site," Speer says. "I'm not going to divulge it at this time."

Village officials are in the early stages of their research, though they have started working with Tom Golisano's Empire State Wind, which is geared toward developing community-focused wind-power projects. In an agreement with the Yates County town of Benton, Empire State Wind gives the town the option to buy the wind farm after 10 years. Speer says that he expects that Hilton could reach a similar agreement with the company.

If the village owns the wind towers it could mean cheaper electricity for customers since the village is no longer buying that power from a third party.