UI will install wind turbine on campus

IOWA CITY --The University of Iowa plans to install a 2.4 kilowatt wind turbine at the south end of Madison Street on Tuesday, weather permitting. The installation will happen from 10 a.m. to noon at the south end of Madison Street, in front of the UI's Madison Street Services Building.

Rising some 37 feet into the air, the wind turbine will be used as a teaching device by Pablo Carrica, associate professor in the College of Engineering Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. UI Facilities Management also will connect the turbine to the existing power panel in the Madison Street Services Building and use the power it generates on campus.

The wind turbine is part of the UI's evolving green energy discovery district, roughly bounded by the Madison Street Services Building, the University Services Building and the UI Power Plant. The area engages several green energy technologies that include the new Energy Control Center on the third floor of the University Services Building, a solar E-car charging station to be constructed near MSSB, two types of photovoltaic/solar panel technologies on and adjacent to the new Cambus Maintenance facility, expansion of the biomass energy program at the UI Power Plant, a growing alternative fuel vehicle fleet, and the investigation into the revitalization of hydroelectric power. Several of the projects are the outcome of collaborative efforts between Facilities Management and the College of Engineering.

The wind turbine and its instrumentation were purchased with a $39,778 grant made to Carrica from the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development (IAWIND).