Colorado State University officials hope to one day power their school using 100 percent wind power.
This story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan says the school plans to apply in February to put up an 8,000-acre wind farm that could power the entire university:
CSU officials said earlier this year the wind farm could be operational in 2010. The wind power from the farm won’t go directly to CSU, but rather be pumped into the power grid as part of the larger energy portfolio.
The university said in March 2007 the wind farm would include at least 25 wind turbines capable of producing 65 megawatts with the potential to produce 200 megawatts.
CSU uses about 16 megawatts during peak demand.
Interim university President Tony Frank said he thinks the project makes sense both financially and from the standpoint of giving students and faculty hands-on experience with turbines.
“I can’t see a focus on renewable energy being a bad trait or anything other than more important as we go forward,” Frank said. “We always try and ask ourselves, do these (projects) make fiscal sense for us? We don’t want to be doing things just to be doing them.”
The biggest issue might be what to do when the wind doesn’t blow enough to power the turbines. But after just recently driving through that area of Southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado (and you should see the number of windmills in that region), it seems to me that will NEVER be a problem!