The university could begin using wind as an energy source nearly two years after discussions to build a wind turbine began, administrators say.
A report to be completed in the next two to three months will reveal the effectiveness of a wind turbine at SIUC, said Director of Plant and Service Operations Phil Gatton.
Justin Harrell, a Physical Plant electrical engineer, said the results from the report would reveal the type of turbine that would be most effective in southern Illinois.
“There’s turbines that are designed for different wind speeds,” Harrell said. “They’re designed for maximum output at a particular wind speed.”
Harrell said the southern Illinois area has lower wind speeds, so a turbine that would be effective upstate might not work as well at SIUC.
Gatton said it would be a lengthy process to acquire the turbine.
“We have to go to the board for approval,” Gatton said. “We have to go to our administration. We have to determine what the economic costs are and what the payback is.”
Gatton said once the study is done, possibly by June 1, and funds for the turbine are secured, there is between a nine-month and one year wait to receive the turbine.
Gatton said there is about a 50 percent chance the turbine becomes a reality.
Harrell said the location for the turbine is still planned to be on the west side of campus near McLafferty Annex, and the testing area for the report is directly across from the annex on a radio tower.
“The great thing about that is that we don’t have to extrapolate from a low data collection point,” Harrell said. “We can actually collect data from the height that the turbine hub will be somewhere between 80 and 100 meters.”
Gatton said if the radio tower did not exist, they would have had to build a structure that would have been just less than 200 feet tall, because if it were taller than 200 feet they would have to get a Federal Aviation Administration license.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had originally planned a similar project two years ago, but has since ended those discussions.
Andy Blacker, a worker with customer relations and communications at facilities and services at UIUC said, at that time, turbines were both more expensive and required a longer wait to receive because of their popularity, so they decided to end those talks.
Blacker said there has been student interest to restart those talks, but UIUC is now looking at other ways to preserve energy.
“I don’t know if this is something that will come back around in time or not,” Blacker said. “They could just continue to look for other sources.”
Blacker said UIUC had planned on implementing three turbines instead of just one.
Harrell said SIUC would also have to get approval from the FAA and be aware of potential telecommunications interference, but he said it looks like the university will pass both.
Gatton said they are hoping the wind turbine will be used to power the new football stadium being built.
“I think it would be nice for people to be able to have a football game and know that all the energy being used to power the lights and all the equipment in the stadium could be green energy,” Gatton said.
Stile Smith can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 268
I'm curious, what are you basing this 16 month window on and what do your define as "medium" sized? All wind turbines are custom built, every single one. I think that 16 month window is a little generous. It'll take you a year just to figure out exactly where it can go and getting past that hurdle. A turbine instal is still subject to EPA regulations and whims of the DNR. You just can't ignore EPA, DNR, and as the article mentioned FAA requirements because you're a state school. Unless there is also an exemption for Universities at the Federal level.
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