Babson launches on-campus wind turbine
Mass High Tech News: The Journal of New England
April 21, 2008
www.bizjournals.com
Babson College in Wellesley will use Earth Day as the stage to commission its new wind turbine, becoming the first Greater Boston college to use wind power through an on-campus installation.
The project, which was originally reported in February, calls for a 1.8 kilowatt turbine manufactured by Southwest Windpower of Arizona and installed and managed by SolarWrights Inc., a Rhode Island based provider of efficient renewable energy systems.
Southwest Windpower is privately funded, in part by RockPort Capital Partners, which has offices in Boston and Menlo Park, Calif.
The college is touting the project tomorrow, in celebration of Earth Day, but the turbine isn't expected to be running at capacity until the end of the spring semester next month.
The turbine is expected to produce enough energy to supply roughly 60 percent of the annual energy needs at the school's entrepreneurship gallery after planned lighting renovations are completed to the space.
The installation site itself will also be used as a space to encourage visitors to support resource conservation and efficiency improvements, according to the college.
The project was led on-campus by the student-run Babson Energy and Environmental Club (BEEC) at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business. The group also provided $5,000 in funding for the project, which was raised during the past year through the organization's e-waste recycling campaign, as well as some solicited contributions.
While the project will be the first college-based turbine in Greater Boston, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne installed its own turbine in 2006. |
