Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Southwestern to Install Second Wind Turbine


Southwestern College is one of four sites to have been selected to receive Wind for Schools grants this year. Last November, Green Team Director, Jason Speegle applied for the grant which is arranged by Kansas State University and funded in part by Westar. “I felt that we [Southwestern] had a very strong application. We had letters of support from the City of Winfield, USD 465, and Cates Supply (local wind turbine installers). I also received unwavering support from the administration of the college as well as the plant operations director,” according to Speegle.  Speegle says that he and the administration of the college learned a lot during the installation of the wind turbine in the summer of 2011 and that knowledge will certainly aid them in the process of installing this next turbine.

The details of the installation are not yet fully known. According to Speegle, “the announcement that Southwestern had been selected as a site was made a couple of weeks ago. We will receive more details in the near future.” Due to zoning, the site of the wind turbine installation will be near the new plant operations building in the corner of Warren St. and Viking Blvd. Southwestern will choose the type of turbine that is to be installed. The turbine will either be a Skystream 2.4, identical to the turbine installed at Southwestern in August of 2011 or a Raum 3.5, a slightly more powerful turbine.

Circle High School, Otis-Bison Junior/Senior High School, and Western Plains High School were the other three sites selected to receive wind turbine grants this year.

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