M.U.M. sustainability coordinator Mark Stimson said students from the sustainable living department have built an 80-foot wind turbine tower and positioned it at the west end of the university's science wing. A variance is needed for the tower because the campus is situated in a general residential district where structures exceeding 30 feet in height are prohibited.
Although the tower is already up, Stimson said it could easily be removed.
The students will be using the tower to test two different windmill units. Stimson said the commercially made unit has a blade span of 7 feet in diameter and can generate 900 watts of power. The unit designed and built by the students has a blade span of 14 feet in diameter, and Stimson said it was not yet determined how much power it will generate. For comparison, Stimson said the windmill blades that have been trucked through Fairfield are 240 feet in diameter.
Combined with solar panels, the wind turbine is expected to generate 20 percent of the energy for M.U.M.'s science wing.
For the complete article, see the Friday, February 6, 2009, Fairfield Ledger.
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