Editorial: Overland Park city officials should back Sprint’s request to erect a wind turbine
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Kansas City Star
August 19, 2007
www.kansascity.com
A small wind turbine would fit well with the prairie grass on the Sprint campus while creating a practical result: electric power.
The company has proposed building a turbine that could produce enough electricity to keep the lights on for its monument signs at 117th Street and Nall Avenue in Overland Park. Excess power could be used elsewhere on the 240-acre campus.
Sprint’s generator wouldn’t be anything like the wind-powered machines that have sparked controversy in some parts of western Kansas, where the towers sometimes reach 260 feet tall and sport 120-foot-long blades.
By contrast, Sprint’s turbine would be 40 feet tall with six-foot-long blades.
The company’s campus is near busy commercial corridors on 119th Street, so the new generator probably wouldn’t look too out of place and it would stand as a good reminder to all passers-by of the need to conserve energy.
When the issue comes to them in September, Overland Park City Council members ought to endorse Sprint’s attempt to support renewable energy.
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