RENO — The city of Reno’s Public Works department had a touch of good fortune on the rooftop of City Hall on Wednesday. At a press conference, its new turbines swayed back and forth, spinning hastily and silently converting wind into energy that will provide environmental benefits and cost savings for Reno.

The two turbines make the third and fourth of 10 to be installed in the city and are the first two in the nation to be placed on a city hall building, officials said.

“When we first started looking at this, we never dreamed we would be doing (this project) on City Hall,” said Reno Councilman Dave Aiazzi. “This has taken proven leadership to encourage green efforts in the city.”

Using a number of energy efficiency and conservation block grants provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act federal stimulus money, the city hired an energy services company to do a citywide audit and identify conservation measures it considered feasible for lowering energy use.

Concerning wind power, several sites were selected to install turbine technology, including the City Hall building, the parking gallery, the Stead Wastewater Treatment Plant and Mira Loma Park. Each site will be metered by anemometers to track and collect wind data, including direction, speed and power produced.

Jason Geddes, environmental services administrator for the city, said the turbines are certified to handle winds up to 140 miles per hour and will save 3,900 kilowatt hours per year, a total savings of about $500 for the city.

“I hope other places will do the same thing,” Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said. “The savings is great and we’re being a leader (in this technology). We love it.”

So that the public might see that the technology is helping with cost savings, Geddes added it soon will be accessible on the city’s website.

“We are beta testing a new website, but then people will be able to go on to reno.gov and be able to look at solar energy and wind turbines and find out how much energy they’re generating,” he said. “They can see what the wind speed is in real time.”

The city is working in conjunction with Washoe County Air Quality and the Western Regional Climate Center to track aerodynamics and create a map that would show the city’s wind resources and use three-dimensional airflow models. The web-based map would show the wind data for each individual neighborhood and where the wind resources are stronger than local averages.

The city’s energy efficiency project is being done in two phases. The wind projects fall into the first phase. Altogether, the entire project will cost more than $18.5 million and create 205 jobs.

Chuck Alvey, president of the Economic Development Authority of Western Authority (EDAWN), said the turbines are an opportunity to encourage residents and businesses to think green.

“It’s aspiring to inspire people to do more,” Alvey said. “It sets an example that it can be done.”

He said in terms of job creation, it helps identify long-term work in the manufacturing and distribution industries of renewable energy. It also gives EDAWN another selling point for attracting businesses to northern Nevada.

“People want to live green, but when they think of us, they think more of recreation,” Alvey said. “This gives people another side of life (in northern Nevada).”