Modern-day Don Quixotes looking to tilt at wind turbines can see their latest fearsome foe from far and wide: Lower Manhattan; Red Hook, Brooklyn; or the Gowanus Expressway.

In less than a month of operation, the first large-scale wind turbine to be installed in New York City, standing more than 160 feet tall, has produced enough energy to power two homes for over a year, or one 20-watt light bulb for over a century.

But this turbine, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, was built to help power a recycling plant on a pier at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. It is expected to provide 4 percent of the energy used by the plant, which is owned and operated by Sims Metal Management, an Australian company.

The plant, which has processed most of the city’s curbside metal, glass and plastic recyclables since opening in 2013, already fills 16 percent of its energy needs with solar power harvested from panels on its roof; the remainder of its power comes from traditional sources.