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Energy Project Possible First Step Toward For Immediate Release: RICHMOND, Ind. — After years of seemingly tilting at windmills trying to get the Earlham College community to think about environmental responsibility in terms that go beyond the recycling bins distributed sporadically around campus or the few hybrid automobiles now being added to the College’s vehicle fleet, several professors this summer hope to raise dramatically the eco-consciousness of their colleagues, students and others with — what else? — a windmill. 
Earlham art major Andy Chao ’05 created this view of how the wind turbine and solar panels proposed for Dennis Hall will look once all the components are in place. Visibility is a key aspect of the demonstration project, says Earlham Director of Environmental Programs Mic Jackson, explaining why a number of the solar panels will be exposed along the parapet of the building while others will be “tub” mounted on the roof. The one-kilowatt wind turbine, meanwhile, is expected to soar approximately 30 feet into the sky above the building. According to Professor of Mathematics and Director of Environmental Programs Mic Jackson, using part of a $50,000 gift to Earlham from an anonymous donor with an interest in environmental issues the College expects to erect by fall a one-kilowatt wind turbine atop Dennis Hall. The project, coupled with a companion effort to install 20 electricity-producing solar panels on the roof and parapet of Dennis, could be the first step on a path to reducing the College’s reliance on non-sustainable sources of energy. “I’m just real excited about it,” says Professor of Biology Brent Smith, an ecologist and member of the College’s recently formed environmental responsibility committee. “For the first time, Earlham has taken a step that reflects concern for the energy it consumes — all of it, of course, ultimately being fossil fuel energy. Being able to have even a small portion of that energy generated on campus, I think, is significant.” With a total generating capacity (wind + solar) of roughly four kilowatts, the alternative energy installations on top of Dennis Hall are not expected to do much more than provide electricity to an informational “green zone” on the ground floor of the building, says Jackson, adding that plans are to outfit the area with a computer and multiple liquid crystal displays (LCDs) showing in real time what’s happening with the new equipment three or more stories overhead. The real power of the windmill and solar panels, Jackson says, will be in education. “We want to be able to have someone come in and see results, say, over the past 24 hours and up to the minute,” relates Jackson. “One set of displays might be configured to show information from the anemometers (which measure wind speed) and solar gauges, while another shows power graphs, so we’ll know what kind of wind or solar gain we’re getting under different conditions. “This kind of information could be useful in a statistics class, for example, and for our environmental science classes. And that’s what we’re after, at least initially. We want to have this information available so that our students can work with real data.” Wanting to supply a few of his students with some of that real data is what started Associate Professor of Computer Science Charlie Peck collecting local weather information four years ago — information that subsequently has suggested the viability of wind-generated power, especially, in the region. “We began tracking weather data as part of one of our applied computer science groups, the Hardware Interfacing Project (HIP),” explains Peck, another member of Earlham’s environmental responsibility committee. “The idea was to interface computers with scientific instruments to show students how to do instrument control and monitoring ‘on the fly.’ Our existing weather station (also atop Dennis Hall) grew out of that group.” So, now what? 
Mic Jackson (right) and recent computer science graduate Greg Sandstrom ’05 inspect a small photovoltaic panel on the roof of Dennis Hall. The unit was used to gather preliminary information on the potential for solar generated power from 20 larger panels due to be installed on the roof and along the south parapet of the building later this summer. True to the interdisciplinary nature of the academic enterprise at Earlham, Peck says it wasn’t long after the weather station’s installation that other groups on campus began making inquiries about the information being gathered. “I remember there was some interest pretty quickly from the Biology Department,” Peck says. “There’s almost always some local field research going on — in this case I think it involved frogs — and they were interested in some temperature data, in particular, which we were able to provide. “And that got me thinking, ‘OK, so now what? What else can we do with this information?’ We had lots of wind data, too. How could that apply to something else we might want to do?” With those questions echoing in his head, Peck says he was driving home one afternoon when the answer occurred to him. “I live down in Boston Township, south of Richmond,” says Peck. “If you’ve driven out that way you know it’s mostly wide open farm fields. Anyway, I do some research out at Stanford, in California, and one of the things I get to see out there are these huge wind farms spread out across similar kinds of fields. So, I was sort of reminded of that and that’s how the idea for our wind project came up. “The only problem was we didn’t have any funding,” Peck continues. “And then, almost providentially, this alumni donor materializes and now we have the funding to build a prototype, which is what’s happening on top of Dennis Hall.” While many people may not think of central Indiana as a particularly windy region (unlike the coastal area where Stanford University is located and where strong winds off the Pacific Ocean have made wind farming for power generation practical for some years now), Peck says the HIP wind data collected during the past four years indicate a “steadiness of presence” that could make a wind farm possible here — especially as technological advances continue to make wind turbines more effective at lower wind velocities. Although, the feasibility of such a project from a financial perspective is another thing entirely, Peck hastens to add. “Still, if one believes that the cost of energy is only going to continue to rise,” says Peck, “then you might be able to make a case that it even makes economic sense, and particularly so for the College, which already owns enough land on back campus to build 40 or so of these things plus has the long-term viability to recover its costs over 30 or 40 or 50 years.” Because of its relatively high latitude and frequently overcast skies, Richmond is not a choice location for trying to generate power using expansive solar arrays, says Peck, calling that part of the Dennis Hall demonstration project “largely pedagogical.” Past the point of no return If, at the moment, the idea of the College being somehow energy self-sufficient seems a bit far-fetched, Mic Jackson points out there is historical precedent. Indeed, for much of its early history, observes Jackson, Earlham produced almost all of its own power by way of an on-campus steam generator. “I think a lot of what we have to do to convince people this can actually be achieved is to get them to understand that while, yes, times have changed, so has technology,” Jackson says; he notes, as well, that a commercial wind farm already is in successful operation not far away in Bowling Green, Ohio. “If we can do that and if this (demonstration) project shows that we can apply new technology effectively, then as the community conscious institution that Earlham has always been I think it’s appropriate that we continue to pursue these possibilities.” Adds Brent Smith: “Our concern should be not only about the ecological effects of our using fossil fuels, but also about the ultimate availability of that fossil fuel energy. We’ve already passed the maximum production capacity of oil. Dubai, for example, is due to run out of oil in 20 years, which is why people in the government there are so desperately trying to figure out other ways they can support their people. “I think we’ve been extremely slow as a country in developing alternative technologies. But, now we have to go. Those fossil fuels are limited. So, it really isn’t a question of if they’ll run out, only when and whether we’ll be prepared for it.” — EC — Contact: Charlie Peck,
assistant professor of computer science Brent Smith, professor of
biology Kevin Burke, director of media relations
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |