Kirkwood’s wind turbine on main campus
Turbine offsets main campus electrical power needs by 24 percent
Cedar Rapids, Iowa (April 22, 2015)-The wind turbine on Kirkwood Community College’s main campus has surpassed the $1 million dollar mark for total electricity generated. The energy produced reduces the college’s electrical carbon footprint by nearly one quarter.
The 416-foot tall, 2.5 megawatt turbine generates approximately $320,000 of energy a year. Due to its size, the electricity produced must be sold directly to Alliant Energy. The revenue from the sale offsets the college’s main campus electrical costs by 24 percent.
According to Kirkwood Associate Vice President of Facilities and Security Tom Kaldenberg, eventually the turbine will be an even bigger benefit to the college.
“Our electric bills for the main campus run about $1.4 million per year,” said Kaldenberg. “Based on the current income of the turbine we will pay the low interest loans off in 2023 or 2024. With a life expectancy of more than 20 years, the turbine will generate over $300k per year in income for the campus for the rest of its useful life after that point.”
The turbine was an idea of Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich early in his presidency. However, it took some time to come to fruition.
“When Clipper came to town about 2006, we had some conversations with them and even put up a weather station for a few months to test the wind,” said Kaldenberg. “It did not move any further until early 2010 when I was contacted by HRGreen to assess doing a general contract. We started a design and hunt for funding in the summer of that year. Before it was all said and done, there were a million hoops to jump through, including a full federal environmental assessment. That study alone is about four inches thick.”
When the wind is blowing, the turbine is able to produce power 97 percent of the time. In 2014, enough power was produced to run nearly 469 homes for an entire year.
“If the winds are high and the turbine is running at full capacity, it produces enough power to run about 1200 homes,” said Kaldenberg.