MIDDLETOWN — When Shenandoah Schools got its electricity bill last month, the total due was zero.
That's not always the case, but it's also not a unique billing, thanks to the district's two-year-old wind turbine.
This is despite wind levels being slightly lower than average, according to Shenandoah Schools Superintendent Ron Green.
“We like that, obviously,” he said of the December bill. “We’re proud of that fact. We’d like to have more of those months, but it depends on the wind.”
The wind turbine was paid for with grants and bonds. About $2.3 million of the turbine was paid for with Clean Renewable Energy bonds from the government, and an additional $300,000 was raised in bonds through the school district.
Officials are hopeful the turbine pays for itself eight to 10 years from now, and Green thinks the turbine is on track to do just that.
The wind turbine, a model PowerWind 900kW, is meant to produce about 85 percent of the schools’ energy. The schools include the elementary, middle and high schools, but the wind turbine does not supply power to administrative offices or the football field.
“The reason they set that at 85 percent is because we are not a utility,” Green said. “We are just to produce what can cover right here on campus.”
Green said the school district doesn’t want to become a utility and will just stick with the one wind turbine.
Business Manager Julia Miller said the average for annual electric bills varied from $200,000 to $250,000 before the wind turbine. Now, the school is paying between $105,000 and $112,000 annually for electricity.
Green said he hopes the number for annual payments will decrease even lower as wind averages pick up in the coming years.
Inspiring education
Sami DeLey, a Shenandoah sophomore, said she knew she wanted to learn more about the wind turbine at Shenandoah as soon as she saw it being installed when she was in the eighth grade.
“I remember being outside and watching it be put together in the three parts,” she said. “That’s when I was like, ‘I want to learn more about it.’”
She and Brandon Barnes, also a sophomore, are the school’s experts on the wind turbine. Once the two students entered high school, Barnes suggested they do a natural resource demonstration on the turbine at FFA competitions.
Last year, the students won first place in the district contest and second place at the state competition. While this may sound like a grand achievement to some, Barnes and DeLey are determined to win even higher-ranking awards, starting with taking first again at the district contest in March.
While not every FFA member or student is as well versed in talking about the turbine as DeLey and Barnes, it has opened up a class for students to learn about sustainable energy.
The sustainable energy alternative class currently has two sections being taught at the high school. One section has about 15 students in it, while the other has more than 20 students.
Students learn about various types of energy, including wind and nuclear energy.
How it works
The wind turbine is made up of about three external parts. The tower is 220 feet, while the three blades are 82 feet and the nacelle that connects the two is 11 feet.
The device is a 900 kilowatt turbine, which Green said is good because it won’t produce more than the 85 percent energy average they are hoping for.
The turbine reaches the optimal level of producing the 900 kilowatts at winds of 26 mph. The turbine starts producing some energy when winds are at about 7 mph.
The turbine will keep producing the same 900 kilowatts of energy when winds are higher than 26 mph, but the turbine will completely shut down if winds reach 60 mph.
One concern that Barnes said some have about the turbine is what happens if lightning strikes it. The wind turbine has a lightning rod inside of it that will absorb the energy. The turbine has a built-in system that detects when storms are near.
Noise is another concern the students hear in their turbine presentations. Barnes said the turbine is about as loud as a refrigerator once people are a safe designated distance away.
All in all, Green said he has only received good feedback about the turbine.
“Everyone needs to be good stewards of our environment,” he said. “Anything we can do to help future generations and anything we can do to save energy costs and lower carbon fuels we want to try to do.”