$6,000 LCC Wind Turbine Teaches New Economy Skills

Lansing Community College (LCC) recently reinstalled a $6,000 residential wind turbine on its west campus.

Students in LCC’s Alternative Energy Programtook the 80-pound turbine down last year because they needed to extend the 60-foot base to maximize energy generation. By adding 20 feet to the turbine’s base, students were able to raise the turbine above nearby trees, allowing the turbine to capture more wind.

“It’s doing a lot better than it was,” says David Wilson with LCC's Alternative Energy Program.

On average, the turbine generates 750 watts from 13 mile an hour winds. The electricity is stored in batteries in a wind energy classroom at LCC, where students use the energy to power classroom technologies.

The next solar energy class will install solar panels near the wind turbine to generate more electricity.

“So, if we have a day that’s not windy and the sun’s shinning, we can still generate electricity,” Wilson says.

Each semester the alternative energy students add alternative energy components to the classroom. They also work with hydrogen fuel cells.

Wilson says most of his students are displaced autoworkers who are trying to apply their manufacturing skills in the New Economy.

Source: David Wilson, LCC

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie