NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy 

Efficiency & Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Wind Powering America’s

Wind for Schools Project

Summary Report

I. Baring-Gould and C. Newcomb

Management Report

NREL/MP-7A20-51180

June 2012
NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy 

Efficiency & Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

15013 Denver West Parkway

Golden, Colorado 80401

303-275-3000 • www.nrel.gov

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Wind Powering America’s 

Wind for Schools Project

Summary Report

I. Baring-Gould and C. Newcomb

Prepared under Task No. WE11.1102

Management Report

NREL/MP-7A20-51180

June 2012
NOTICE

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i
ii

Abbreviations & Acronyms

BSU: Boise State University

CSU: Colorado State University

DOE: U.S. Department of Energy

INL: Idaho National Laboratory

JMU: James Madison University

KSU: Kansas State University

kW: kilowatts

MSU: Montana State University

NAU: Northern Arizona University

NEED: National Energy Education Development Project

NPPD: Nebraska Public Power District

NREL: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

RBEG: Rural Business Enterprise Grant

SDSU: South Dakota State University

UNL: University of Nebraska

USDA: U.S. Department of Agriculture

VCWE: Virginia Center for Wind Energy

WAC: Wind Applications Center

WPA: Wind Powering America
iii

Table of Contents

1 Introduction________________________________________________________________ 1

2 Teacher-Training Activities & Curriculum Development _____________________________ 8

2.1 The KidWind Project ____________________________________________________________ 8

2.2 The NEED Project ______________________________________________________________ 8

3 Wind for Schools Affiliate Program ____________________________________________ 10

3.1 Individual K-12 Wind for Schools Affiliate Program __________________________________ 10

3.2 Statewide Wind for Schools Auxiliary Program _____________________________________ 11

3.3 Wind for Schools Equivalent Wind Systems ________________________________________ 13

4 State Reports ______________________________________________________________ 15

4.1 Alaska (Round 2) ______________________________________________________________ 15

4.2 Arizona (Round 2) _____________________________________________________________ 19

4.3 Colorado (Round 1)____________________________________________________________ 24

4.4 Idaho (Round 1) ______________________________________________________________ 35

4.5 Kansas (Round 1) _____________________________________________________________ 44

4.6 Montana (Round 1)____________________________________________________________ 50

4.7 Nebraska (Round 1) ___________________________________________________________ 54

4.8 North Carolina (Round 2) _______________________________________________________ 59

4.9 Pennsylvania (Round 2) ________________________________________________________ 66

4.10 South Dakota (Round 1) ________________________________________________________ 69

4.11 Virginia (Round 2) _____________________________________________________________ 74

5 Appendix I: Wind for Schools Partner Organizations and Contacts ___________________ 78

List of Tables

Table 1. Wind for Schools Project Installations as of June 1, 2012_____________________________ 6

Table 2. Alaska Installations Summary __________________________________________________ 16

Table 3. Demographics of Students in the University of Alaska's Introduction to Wind Energy 

Courses ________________________________________________________________________ 17

Table 4. Arizona Installations Summary__________________________________________________ 20

Table 5. Colorado Installations Summary ________________________________________________ 24

Table 6. Walsh High School Project Cost Summary ________________________________________ 26

Table 7. Kit Carson School District Project Cost Summary __________________________________ 27

Table 8. Stratton High/Middle School Project Cost Summary ________________________________ 28

Table 9. Burlington High School Project Cost Summary ____________________________________ 28

Table 10. Arriba-Flagler High School Project Cost Summary ________________________________ 30

Table 11. Wellington Middle School Project Cost Summary _________________________________ 31

Table 12. Idaho Installations Summary __________________________________________________ 35
iv

Table 13. Boise State University Enrollment for Renewable Energy Systems (ME 426/526) _______ 39

Table 14. Kansas Installations Summary _________________________________________________ 44

Table 15. Montana Installations Summary ________________________________________________ 51

Table 16. Nebraska Installations Summary _______________________________________________ 55

Table 17. North Carolina Installations Summary___________________________________________ 59

Table 18. South Dakota Installations Summary____________________________________________ 69

Table 19. Virginia Installations Summary_________________________________________________ 74

List of Figures

Figure 1. A 2008 U.S. Department of Energy report outlined a 20% wind energy by 2030 scenario, 

noting that 500,000 new jobs would be created in the wind industry._______________________ 1

Figure 2. The Wind for Schools project promotes the exchange of knowledge and resources among 

industry, educational institutions, and the government. Federal and state governments and the 

wind industry provide direct support to K-12 schools, community colleges and vocational 

schools, and universities and colleges. Colleges, universities, and vocational schools provide 

induced support to government and the wind industry while all three levels of educational 

institutions support each other. _____________________________________________________ 2

Figure 3. Schematic of the Wind for Schools project ________________________________________ 4

Figure 4. Alaska Wind for Schools project locations _______________________________________ 17

Figure 5. Arizona Wind for Schools project locations ______________________________________ 21

Figure 6. Colorado Wind for Schools project locations _____________________________________ 25

Figure 7. Limited funding didn’t deter Burlington High School science teacher Jim Jones, who dug 

the foundation for his school’s turbine by hand. Photo from Mike Kostrzewa, Colorado State 

University, NREL/PIX 16847___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 8. Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado installed its turbine in January 2011. Photo by 

Frank Oteri, NREL/PIX 18440_______________________________________________________ 32

Figure 9. Idaho Wind for Schools project locations ________________________________________ 37

Figure 10. Turbine at Richard McKenna Charter High School in Mountain Home, Idaho. Photo from 

Todd Haynes, NREL/PIX 18602 _____________________________________________________ 39

Figure 11. Kansas Wind for Schools project locations______________________________________ 46

Figures 12, 13. Turbine dedication ceremony at the Hope Street Academy. Photos from Ruth Douglas 

Miller, Kansas State University, NREL/PIX 17338 and NREL/PIX 17340 ____________________ 48

Figure 14. Montana Wind for Schools project locations_____________________________________ 51

Figure 15. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer helps winch up the Lewistown turbine in Montana. 

Photo from Sean Micken, NREL/PIX 17435 ___________________________________________ 52

Figure 16. A billboard displays Elkhorn Valley’s school pride (green is a school color). Elkhorn Valley 

installed its turbine in 2008. Photo from Dan McGuire, NREL/PIX 17332 ___________________ 54

Figure 17. Nebraska Wind for Schools project locations ____________________________________ 56

Figure 18. North Carolina Wind for Schools project locations________________________________ 61

Figure 19. North Carolina school locations with >10-mph average annual wind speed @ 30 meters 

(based on AWS Truepower’s North Carolina wind resource map) ________________________ 62

Figure 20. North Carolina WAC research assistant Christopher Guttenberg learns about the KidWind 

model kit. Photo from Appalachian State University, NREL/PIX 18604_____________________ 63

Figure 21. North Carolina Wind for Schools project logo____________________________________ 64

Figure 22. Locations of 2011 Pennsylvania Wind for Schools applicants ______________________ 66

Figure 23. Pennsylvania Wind for Schools project locations_________________________________ 67

Figure 24. Sanborn Central School in Forestburg was the first South Dakota school to install a Wind 

for Schools project turbine. Photo from East River Electric Power Cooperative, NREL/PIX 16030

_______________________________________________________________________________ 69

Figure 25. South Dakota Wind for Schools project locations ________________________________ 71

Figure 26. Northumberland Middle/High School installed the first Wind for Schools project in Virginia 

in February 2011. Photo from Remy Luerssen, James Madison University, NREL/PIX 18543 __ 74

Figure 27. Virginia Wind for Schools project locations _____________________________________ 75
1

1 Introduction

As the United States dramatically expands wind energy deployment, the industry is challenged with 

developing a skilled workforce to support it. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued 

a report1 describing a 20% wind energy future by 2030, which noted that 500,000 new annual fulltime equivalent jobs would be created under this scenario.

Figure 1. A 2008 U.S. Department of Energy report outlined a 20% wind energy by 2030 scenario, 

noting that 500,000 new jobs would be created in the wind industry.

In FY08, the DOE’s Wind Powering America (WPA) initiative launched the Wind for Schools 

project in six states (Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota) to address 

workforce development needs and public resistance to wind energy deployment. In 2010, five more 

states were selected for Round 2 (Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) 

from 25 qualified applicants who responded to a competitive request for proposals2

Wind for Schools focuses on K-12 and university educators and students to counter the trend of 

reduced numbers of U.S. students entering science and engineering fields. The project’s goals are 

to:

to expand Wind 

for Schools activities. This second round of funding began supporting projects in FY10 and is 

expected to last for approximately 3 years.

• Equip college and university students with an education in wind energy applications

• Engage American communities in wind energy applications, benefits, and challenges

• Introduce K-12 teachers and students to wind energy.

 1 The report is available at www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/41869.pdf 2 Issued on October 23, 2009
2

Figure 2. The Wind for Schools project promotes the exchange of knowledge and resources among 

industry, educational institutions, and the government. Federal and state governments and the wind 

industry provide direct support to K-12 schools, community colleges and vocational schools, and 

universities and colleges. Colleges, universities, and vocational schools provide induced support to 

government and the wind industry while all three levels of educational institutions support each 

other.

Wind for Schools project teams in these states work toward these goals by:

• Developing Wind Application Centers (WACs) at universities. WAC students assist in 

implementing school wind turbines and participate in wind courses, providing them with 

practical project experience, enhancing their preparation for work in the wind or other 

power sectors

• Installing small wind turbines at community “host” schools, which introduces communities, 

teachers, students, and local utilities to wind technology to spur discussions and firsthand 

knowledge of wind energy technologies

• Implementing teacher trainings with interactive curricula at each host school.
3

The project’s methods are as follows:

• Build in-state capacity to provide technical assistance for large, community, and distributed 

wind projects by providing hands-on “living laboratories” for K-12 and university students

• Develop within each state a center of knowledge and excellence at a respected university 

that is available to address future wind-related deployment and technical issues

• Develop college-level wind energy programs, incorporating wind curricula and small 

turbine installations at community schools

• Work with the American Wind Energy Association, the National Energy Education 

Development (NEED) Project, WindWise, the KidWind Project, and others on K-12 

curricula to incorporate interactive wind energy education into the classroom (see the 

Teacher Training Activities & Curriculum Development section for more information)

• Use a low-cost replicable system for installation at host K-12 schools so that the schools and 

communities can cover project implementation costs

• Work collaboratively with communities and local utilities to implement cost-effective and 

community-supported school energy projects

• Provide technical assistance and training to universities by national laboratory staff

• Implement a low-cost data collection system with international accessibility

• Integrate information from a variety of school wind projects

• Provide a process for selected state programs to identify and then develop community 

relations, allowing them to eventually seek other public or private funding to ensure longterm sustainability of the WACs

• Develop a process so that states interested in developing programs without DOE support can 

use the tools, methodology, and knowledge gained through the Wind for Schools project

(see the Wind for Schools Affiliate Program section for more information).

The Wind for Schools project teams are organized as follows:

• WACs: The WACs are formed at universities in each participating state to train engineering 

students in wind applications analysis and deployment. WAC students gain valuable 

experience by providing technical assistance to school installations. 

• State facilitator: The facilitator assists in developing Wind for Schools projects in each 

state by identifying candidate K-12 schools and working with the community, teachers, 

school administration, local utility, and the WAC to implement the project.

• Host school, science teacher, school administration, and community: A Wind for 

Schools host school owns the small wind turbine, assists in its installation, and implements 

wind energy educational curricula. The host school also provides land for the project, 

interconnection, facilities, and nominal financial support and agrees to make data from the 

turbine public.
4

• WPA/National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)/DOE: WPA, NREL, and DOE 

provide technical and financial assistance to the WAC and facilitator over the first few years 

of the project in each state to help implement the activity. They also provide wind 

measurement equipment to assess potential school sites and assist in curricula development 

at the university and K-12 levels.

• Community: The community (including the local utility and business groups) assists in 

project development, funding, and implementation.

• State government: The state government may provide funding support for the wind 

turbines. 

Figure 3. Schematic of the Wind for Schools project

The project’s results to date are:

• Eleven states have active programs. This report provides an update from each state.

• At the university level, more than 60 students graduated in 2011 with active involvement in 

the WACs.

• As of May 2012, approximately 100 turbines have been installed at host schools, impacting 

many thousands of students. This represents an activity cost share of approximately $1.035 

million (all funding for host school installations comes from non-DOE sources).
5

• Teacher-training programs have been implemented in all Round 1 participating states and 

several Round 2 states.

• There is strong interest in developing programs in additional states (including Texas, 

Illinois, and Iowa) and a defined affiliate program that allows these interested schools and 

states to participate in the program at no cost to DOE.

• New curricula for the K-12 and university levels have been developed to support 

educational opportunities for students. Wind for Schools also supports teacher training and 

curricula developed by the NEED project, the KidWind Project, and Windwise Education. 

The project’s influence is apparent by the increased numbers of students who elect to take 

these courses and engage in wind-related projects. There is also a corresponding increase in 

the number of students who choose to pursue wind energy careers. 

• A wind turbine data collection and storage mechanism is under development and collecting 

data for 40% of the turbines currently installed. This is the first step to allowing data from 

turbines to be incorporated directly into curricula at the K-12 and university levels. Idaho 

National Laboratory (INL) designed the database, but INL staff require additional funding 

to upgrade the software to deal with recurring issues (difficulties exporting data, database 

crashing from multiple simultaneous data request) and to provide the necessary maintenance 

required to ensure that the turbines communicate. The current database system is not 

sustainable because it requires constant monitoring and troubleshooting, and INL does not 

have the funds to maintain the current system or transition to a more reliable system.

This report provides an overview of the Wind for Schools project

to date. Section 2 outlines teacher-training activities and 

curriculum development. Section 3 discusses the affiliate program 

that allows school districts and states to replicate the program. 

Section 4 is dedicated to state reports, providing an update on 

activities and progress in the 11 states in which the Wind for 

Schools project operates. Program funding support was divided 

into Round 1 (beginning in FY08) and Round 2 (beginning in 

FY10 or FY11), so the progress levels among states reported here 

can vary widely, depending on the initial funding date. Also note 

that during the first year of funding, the state teams are laying the 

foundation for projects and seeking partners and additional 

funding; as a result, school projects may not be installed until the 

second or third year.

Table 1 summarizes the Wind for Schools turbine locations. As of 

June 1, 2012, 99 turbines have been installed as part of the 

program. Many other partner schools without turbine installations 

also benefit from Wind for Schools project activities.

The recent cost 

increase of rare 

earths and other 

materials has 

resulted in a nearly 

10% increase in 

material costs for the 

Skystream wind 

turbine and an overall 

cost increase of 30%, 

making these 

projects even more 

difficult to implement 

in rural schools. 

Furthermore, the 

recent rare earth 

elements cost 

increase resulted in 

Southwest 

Windpower delaying 

release of its new 

Skystream 600, 

which many schools 

had planned to 

install. 
6

Table 1. Wind for Schools Project Installations as of June 1, 2012

School Location Install Date

Skyline High School Idaho Falls, ID 2007

Cascade Middle School/Cascade High School Cascade, MT 2008

Cedar Rapids Public School Cedar Rapids, NE 2008

Concordia High School Concordia, KS 2008

Elkhorn Valley School Tilden, NE 2008

Ell-Saline Junior/Senior High School Brookville, KS 2008

Fairfield High School Fairfield, MT 2008

Fairfield High School Langdon, KS 2008

Greenbush Education Center Greenbush, KS 2008

Jerome Middle School Jerome, ID 2008

Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 2008

Montana State University Bozeman, MT 2008

Sanborn Central Forestburg, SD 2008

Sleeping Giant Middle School/Park Senior High School Livingston, MT 2008

Stanford High School Stanford, MT 2008

Sterling High School Sterling, KS 2008

Walton Rural Life Charter Elementary Walton, KS 2008

Arriba-Flagler Consolidated School District High School Flagler, CO 2009

Blue Valley Junior/Senior High School Randolph, KS 2009

Burlington High School Burlington, CO 2009

Dakota Valley School District North Sioux City, SD 2009

Diller-Odell Public School Odell, NE 2009

Douglas School District Box Elder, SD 2009

Elkton School District Elkton, SD 2009

Faith School District Faith, SD 2009

Hayes Center Public School Hayes Center, NE 2009

Kit Carson School District Kit Carson, CO 2009

Memorial Middle School Sioux Falls, SD 2009

Pocatello Community Charter School Pocatello, ID 2009

Pretty Prairie Junior High School Pretty Prairie, KS 2009

Selby School District Selby, SD 2009

Shelley High School Shelley, ID 2009

Sherrod Elementary School Palmer, AK 2009

Stratton High/Middle School Stratton, CO 2009

Walsh High School Walsh, CO 2009

Appanoose Elementary School Pomona, KS 2010

Bancroft-Rosalie Public Schools Bancroft, NE 2010

Bloomfield Community Schools Bloomfield, NE 2010

Fergus High School Lewiston, MT 2010

Forsyth High School Forsyth, MT 2010

Glasgow High School Glasgow, MT 2010

Hope Street Academy Topeka, KS 2010

Loup City Public Schools Loup City, NE 2010

Midway Middle School Rigby, ID 2010

Miller School District Miller, SD 2010

Mt. Edgecumbe High School Sitka, AK 2010

Mullen Public Schools Mullen, NE 2010

Norris Public Schools Firth, NE 2010

Papillion-LaVista Public Schools Papillion, NE 2010
7

School Location Install Date

Richard McKenna Charter High School Mountain Home, ID 2010

Rigby High School Rigby, ID 2010

Solomon Schools Solomon, KS 2010

Townsend Elementary - Middle School/Broadwater High School Townsend, MT 2010

U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau Juneau, AK 2010

Valier Elementary and Middle School/ Valier High School Valier, MT 2010

Wellington Middle School Wellington, CO 2010

Wessington Springs School District Wessington Springs, 

SD

2010

West Point Public Schools West Point, NE 2010

Wolf Point High School Wolf Point, MT 2010

Yankton School District Yankton, SD 2010

Alleghany High School Sparta, NC 2011

Avery County High School Newland, NC 2011

Brookings School District Brookings, SD 2011

Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies Buxton, NC 2011

College of Albemarle, Dare Campus Manteo, NC 2011

College of the Albemarle - Edenton Edenton, NC 2011

Crawford Public Schools Crawford, NE 2011

Creighton Public Schools Creighton, NE 2011

Eudora High School Eudora, KS 2011

First Flight Middle School Kill Devil Hills, NC 2011

Garden County Public Schools Oshkosh, NE 2011

Henley Middle School Crozet, VA 2011

Hyannis Public Schools Hyannis, NE 2011

Jefferson West Middle/High School Meriden, KS 2011

JP Knapp High School Currituck, NC 2011

Lake Andes School District Lake Andes, SD 2011

Logan View Public Schools Hooper, NE 2011

Mitchell Technical Institute Mitchell, SD 2011

Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 2011

Northumberland Middle/High School Heathsville, VA 2011

Northwestern Arctic Career and Technical Center Nome, AK 2011

North Wilkes Middle School North Wilkesboro, NC 2011

Orme School Mayer, AZ 2011

Penn State University Park, PA 2011

Pleasanton Public Schools Pleasanton, NE 2011

Ponderosa High School Flagstaff, AZ 2011

Ponderosa High School Parker, CO 2011

Saint Michael Indian School St. Michaels, AZ 2011

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Rapid City, SD 2011

University of Alaska (Mat-Su campus) Palmer, AK 2011

Watauga High School Boone, NC 2011

West Holt Public Schools Atkinson, NE 2011

Williams Elementary/Middle School Williams, AZ 2011

Begich Middle School Anchorage, AK 2012

Brookings High School Brookings, SD 2012

Nederland Middle/High School Nederland, CO 2012

Park County RE-2 School District Fairplay, CO 2012

Circle High Schools Towanda, KS 2012

Halstead High School Halstead, KS 2012
8

2 Teacher-Training Activities & Curriculum Development

One important element of the Wind for Schools project is teacher-training activities and curriculum 

development. The program has partnered with the KidWind Project and the NEED Project to 

achieve these goals.

2.1 The KidWind Project

The KidWind Project focuses on four areas: 

• Teacher training and outreach, accomplished via conducting WindWise Workshops and training 

Wind Senators

• Product and kit development

• Curriculum development (e.g., WindWise curriculum and other open source lessons)

• The KidWind Challenge.

Contracted work with the Wind for Schools project includes the following activities:

• Funding for six Wind Senators in Arizona, Idaho, Alaska, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and South 

Dakota. WPA paid 60%, and the individual WACs paid the remaining 40%.

• Funding for WindWise curriculum development to expand and nationalize the current 

WindWise curriculum, including adding a lesson on offshore wind projects.

2.2 The NEED Project

The NEED Project provides:

• Teacher training and support through 1-day, partial day, or multi-day workshops

• Wind curriculum at the primary, elementary, intermediate, and secondary levels correlated to all 

state science standards and updated annually

• Curriculum for schools with turbine installations

• Energy curriculum, including the science of energy, sources of energy, electricity, transportation 

options, and conservation and efficiency

• Energy careers information and activities

• Offshore energy curriculum

• Hands-on classroom kits

• A bi-monthly newsletter providing additional classroom activities and energy careers 

information.
9

Through the Wind for Schools project, the NEED Project provides the following resources:

• Wind for Schools curriculum, developed with the Wind for Schools project team for schools 

with turbine installations

• Teacher training for educators in Wind for Schools states in coordination with the WACs

• Hands-on wind kits provided to each workshop attendee from Round 1 states

• Hands-on wind kits provided to each WAC for distribution to workshop attendees from Round 

2 states

• Support for WACs and educators in Wind for Schools states.

It should be noted that when Colorado teacher and 2010 NREL summer intern Mike Kelley 

conducted a survey of Wind for Schools project participants, he found that the teacher training and 

curriculum development part of the Wind for Schools project did not meet expectations. In his final 

report, Kelly concluded:

“The availability of teacher training is a significant shortcoming of the current 

implementation of Wind for Schools. Offering more frequent training in closer 

proximity to the Wind for Schools sites would improve this situation.”

Regarding curriculum, Kelly reported:

“At the high school level, there is a call for a more complete curriculum, one that 

includes a more detailed and analytical inquiry into topics such as site planning, 

environmental concerns, cost benefit analysis, wind turbine selection process, and 

careers... The WindWise materials should be made available to the participants in 

the Wind for School program...”

As a result of this feedback, beginning in FY10 the program placed a greater emphasis on 

addressing these issues (for example, additional investments were made in WindWise curricula).

The WAC teams also emphasized curriculum development and implementation.
10

3 Wind for Schools Affiliate Program

To accommodate the many stakeholders who are interested in the Wind for Schools project, WPA 

developed a Wind for Schools affiliate program. Individual K-12 schools or states that join the 

affiliate program will not receive financial support from DOE and NREL, but they will receive 

access to technical assistance, program websites, and information. The program is designed to 

support schools that wish to implement wind-related educational curricula and install a Wind for 

Schools wind turbine system or states that intend to implement a statewide program. 

In both cases, a key element of the program is to install small wind turbines at K-12 schools to be 

used in combination with age-appropriate, hands-on wind energy curricula taught in science classes. 

The standard Wind for Schools system is further described in the Wind for Schools Project Power 

System Brief3

The two affiliate programs are described in detail below. 

. Other turbines can be included in the system if appropriate. State-based programs 

would support the implementation of a WAC at a local engineering university or college to lead 

efforts to implement Wind for Schools systems at multiple state K-12 schools. 

3.1 Individual K-12 Wind for Schools Affiliate Program 

The K-12 Wind for Schools affiliate program is designed to support the implementation of an 

education program at a K-12 school with staff interested in incorporating wind energy into existing 

educational programs. 

3.1.1 Program Support 

Although the DOE’s Wind for Schools project will not provide monetary support to an affiliate K12 program, it will provide support in other areas. As a Wind for Schools K-12 affiliate, a school’s 

staff will gain access to: 

• Project implementation documents, including interconnection specifications and foundation 

information

• Hardware and software developed for the Wind for Schools system at costs equivalent to 

those paid by other Wind for Schools host schools 

• Limited technical assistance during the implementation of the Wind for Schools system 

• Program-sponsored teacher-training programs 

• The Wind for Schools host schools’ system database to support expanded educational 

opportunities 

• The Wind for Schools environmental benefit sales process to allow the affiliate school to 

obtain outside funding to support the system implementation 

 3 Available at www.nrel.gov/docs/fy09osti/45685.pdf
11

• The NEED Project’s curricula kits on a short-term loan basis to enable schools to complete 

the full NEED curricula model (as available). 

3.1.2 Program Expectations 

The Wind for Schools program team expects that a school or school system interested in joining the 

affiliate program would engage in the following tasks: 

• Incorporate the NEED Project’s wind curricula into science classes

• Install a Skystream (or equivalent) wind turbine at the school and utilize specific hardware 

(approved as appropriate for any state incentives) 

• Install a compatible data logger and make the data from the wind turbine available on the 

Wind for Schools website so that other schools can access it for educational purposes 

• Obtain all necessary funding to implement the project (the Wind for Schools project will 

offer some support in obtaining funds) 

• Assume responsibility for all turbine maintenance and engage with all relevant 

organizations (such as the local utility or energy cooperative) that would support 

maintenance 

• Conduct education and outreach to the local community 

• Report on installation(s) and share data pertaining to system costs. 

If a school is unable to install a Wind for Schools system due to a lack of available land, permitting, 

or wind resource, the school may become an affiliate if staff members are interested in 

implementing the NEED Project’s wind curricula and using data from other Wind for Schools 

system installations.

3.1.3 Expected Costs 

An individual system, excluding staff time to cover the development costs, is approximately 

$20,000 (this includes the turbine, tower, control package, and curricula). Operational funding for 

the system is not expected to be significant and would likely involve an annual inspection and the 

potential for minor service-related issues. The Wind for Schools project can assist in identifying 

funding sources but will not provide direct funding.

3.1.4 Application Process 

School staff members interested in becoming a Wind for Schools K-12 affiliate should contact 

Charles Newcomb at 303-384-7020 or charles.newcomb@nrel.gov.

3.2 Statewide Wind for Schools Auxiliary Program 

The statewide auxiliary program is designed to mirror the current Wind for Schools activities in 

other states. This includes implementing a WAC at a state-based university, creating a state 

facilitator position (if needed), and funding related program elements. The program goals would 

reflect those of the existing Wind for Schools project, including: 
12

• Educating future wind applications personnel at universities 

• Installing Wind for Schools systems at approximately five host K-12 schools per year 

• Engaging with communities to convey the benefits and discuss the issues related to an 

expanded wind energy application.

3.2.1 Program Support 

By agreeing to establish a state-based Wind for Schools auxiliary program, a state program will 

gain access to a broad array of support services, including: 

• Project implementation documents, such as interconnection specifications and foundation 

information 

• National program-produced Wind for Schools publications 

• Benefits of lessons learned by other states that have already implemented the program 

• Hardware and software developed for the Wind for Schools system at costs equivalent to 

those charged to other Wind for Schools projects 

• Limited technical assistance during the implementation of the Wind for Schools systems 

• Program-sponsored meetings, training programs, and informational summits 

• The Wind for Schools system database to support expanded educational opportunities 

• The Wind for Schools environmental benefit sales process to allow the affiliate school to 

obtain outside funding to support the system implementation.

3.2.2 Program Expectations 

A comprehensive, state-based Wind for Schools auxiliary program will be expected to: 

• Provide funding and operational support to install a Wind for Schools system at the WAC to 

facilitate training and educational opportunities for students at a college or university 

• Identify funding for a state facilitator to work with the WAC and K-12 host schools on 

project implementation and integrate the state participants into the national Wind for 

Schools project

• Obtain all funding necessary to implement the program (some support for this process will 

be available through the national program on a case-by-case basis) 

• Perform or promote education and outreach to local communities 

• Purchase wind assessment/measurement systems to support resource assessments at schools

(these systems are typically provided to the WAC and also provide an educational 

opportunity for students at the university or associated community colleges) 
13

• Implement NEED-based teacher-training program(s) 

• Purchase NEED curriculum kits for loan to K-12 host schools (typically through the WAC) 

• Report installations and share data on system costs 

• Attend national Wind for Schools summits and other related meetings

• Provide partial funding or support for wind equipment at host schools 

• Ensure that each host school activity meets the requirements as defined above for individual 

K-12 school programs. 

3.2.3 Expected Costs 

A fully comprehensive Wind for Schools state program including WAC, state facilitator, and initial 

equipment funding is approximately $175,000 per year for 3 years. This assumes that a small 

amount of the state funding, such as $8,000 to $10,000 per host school, will be applied to wind 

turbine hardware. Typical funding would include: 

• WAC: $60,000 per year 

• State facilitator: $30,000 per year 

• Host school system funding: $50,000 per year (assumes ~five systems per year) 

• State-based project oversight: $10,000 per year 

• Meteorological towers: $25,000 (first year) 

• Wind for Schools teacher training: $25,000 (second and third years).

3.2.4 Application Process 

Any state organization interested in hosting a Wind for Schools K-12 affiliate activity should 

contact Charles Newcomb at 303-384-7020 or charles.newcomb@nrel.gov

3.3 Wind for Schools Equivalent Wind Systems 

The Wind for Schools project has identified Southwest Windpower’s Skystream 3.7 wind turbine as 

the primary turbine to be implemented at host K-12 schools. This turbine system was selected based 

on the following attributes: 

• Manageable size (the nameplate power capacity of 2.4 kilowatts [kW] is small enough to 

avoid a net-metering conflict with the local utility or power cooperative and to allow 

installation using local resources) 

• Primary AC power production (ensures simple interconnection with a school’s electrical 

systems) 

• Guyed lattice and monopole tower options at multiple heights to ease installation
14

• Integrated data acquisition with Web-based monitoring capabilities 

• Manageable total system cost that includes significant turbine price discounts from the 

manufacturer 

• Proven company track record with a commitment to expand support for school-based wind 

systems and a nationwide support infrastructure to allow long-term installation, warrantee, 

and maintenance support. 

Other turbine technologies and sizes would be applicable, but they should be selected for their 

ability to meet the basic requirements listed above and to provide performance data for other Wind 

for Schools partners.
15

4 State Reports

4.1 Alaska (Round 2)

Thirteen Alaska schools applied to install wind turbines in 

2010; however, several of these schools encountered 

hurdles (e.g., limited funding, limited staff to dedicate to 

the project, hesitation from the school board and/or 

Borough) and placed their projects on hold. The 2011 letter 

of intent was distributed in October 2010. Eighteen schools 

applied, including several schools that previously applied 

and are continuing to work toward installing turbines.

The application deadline for 2012 installations closed on 

October 15, 2011, and the WAC received letters of intent 

from the following schools: South High School, 

Anchorage; William Memorial School, Napakiak; Colony 

Middle School, Palmer; Birchwood ABC School, Chugiak; 

and Polaris K-12, Anchorage. 

Table 2 summarizes the six Wind for Schools installations 

in Alaska to date, and Figure 4 shows project locations4

4.1.1 Alaska WAC Activities

in 

the state.

Examples of Alaska WAC activities include the following:

• Each WAC student is assigned to a school that applied 

for a turbine. The students create the project plans for 

each site, including wind maps, site assessments, and 

financial plans.

• The WAC participated in the first KidWind Challenge in Alaska in 2011, along with 12 schools 

and more than 40 teams. Because many communities are remote, organizers scheduled nine 

competitions, shipping a portable wind tunnel to each one. Fifteen teams from 11 communities 

registered for the 2012 Challenge, and the WAC will again bring the event to the remote 

communities. The WAC team developed a teacher resource page to serve as a clearinghouse of 

information on the KidWind Challenge, including resources for curriculum, using the KidWind 

kits, blade design, wind tunnels assembly, using the Veriner equipment, and the student multimedia presentation requirements. A graduate student is working with the Wind for Schools 

project, focusing on the KidWind Challenges in southeast Alaska.

• A planning group is working to create a 1-credit Web-based course that will be offered in the 

2013 spring semester.

 4 Note for all state maps: Some projects are in close proximity to others, which may be represented on the map as a 

single point of interest. See the online map at www.windpoweringamerica.gov/schools/projects.asp to zoom in for more 

detailed views.

WAC

University of Alaska - Fairbanks

www.uaf.edu/acep/alaska-wind-dieselapplic/

WAC Director

Kimberley Maher

University of Alaska-Fairbanks

814 Alumni Drive

PO Box 755910

Fairbanks, AK 99775

kimberley.maher@alaska.edu

State Facilitator

Courtney Munson

Renewable Energy Alaska Project

308 G Street, Suite 207

Anchorage, AK 99501

907-929-7770

c.munson@realaska.org

Staff

Julie Estey, Gwen Holdmann, Jill Maynard

University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Under contract: Round 2

Number of installations: 6
16

• Although as of the end of 2011 the University of Alaska-Fairbanks does not offer 3-credit wind 

energy courses, there are plans to expand education options (including developing a WindDiesel Academy). However, the University of Alaska currently sponsors three 1-credit 

Introduction to Wind Energy courses in rural Alaska in Dillingham, Nome, Bethel, and 

Kotzebue. Table 3 shows student demographics.

Table 2. Alaska Installations Summary

Install

Date

Location Project Details

February 

2012

Begich 

Middle 

School, 

Anchorage

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- Begich began working on a turbine installation in 2010. The school paved 

the way for small wind in Anchorage by being the first approved applicant for 

the municipality’s Wind Energy Conversion System Administrative Site Plan 

Review process

- Begich received a $40,000 legislative funding award for the project

October 

2011

Northwestern 

Alaska 

Career and 

Technical 

Center

(NACTEC), 

Nome 

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- NACTEC is a joint-venture regional vocation training center between the 

Bering Straits School District and Nome Public Schools

- In September 2011, students from the villages of Golovin, Koyuk, Nome, 

Shaktoolik, and Teller participated in a NACTEC renewable energy course, 

working with Bering Straits Development Company construction workers to 

construct the tower foundation. Students gained hands-on experience in 

excavation, building forms, pouring concrete, and wiring rebar 

- The turbine will be used as a hands-on educational tool 

April 2011 University of 

Alaska MatSu Campus,

Palmer

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- The Wind for Schools project is a natural fit for the college, which 

established a Renewable Energy Occupational Endorsement Certificate, the 

first program of its kind in the United States. The program was designed in 

conjunction with an industry steering committee to help meet the growing 

need for energy expertise in Alaska 

December 

2010

U.S. Coast 

Guard Cutter 

Maple 

Moorings 

facility, next 

to Mt. 

Edgecumbe 

High School, 

Sitka

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- Donors: U.S. Coast Guard (donated turbine at ~$8,000, provided in-kind 

assistance with planning and installation), Mt. Edgecumbe High ($4,000), City 

of Sitka Electrical Department ($5,000), Southwest Windpower (40% discount 

on the tower and foundation), Lynden Cargo (free shipping), Renewable 

Energy Alaska Project ($1,000 donation toward the turbine cost), Sitka Ready 

Mix and Jacoby Construction (in-kind donations)

- Math and physics teacher Matt Hunter championed the project after seeing 

a newspaper advertisement for the Wind for Schools project

October 

2010

U.S. Coast 

Guard facility, 

Juneau

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- Donors: U.S. Coast Guard (donated turbine, installed data acquisition 

system)

- As a result of this installation, in 2011 several schools participated in the 

KidWind Challenge in Juneau 

November 

2009

Sherrod 

Elementary 

School, 

Palmer

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

- Project cost: ~$29,000, not including in-kind contributions

- Donors: Matanuska Electric Association, Mat-Su Borough, Mat-Su Borough 

School District, Local Rotary 5010, JD Steel 
17

Figure 4. Alaska Wind for Schools project locations

Table 3. Demographics of Students in the University of Alaska's

Introduction to Wind Energy Courses

Students in Wind Energy Courses Caucasian AfricanAmericanHispanic Native 

Alaskan

AsianAmericanForeign TOTAL

Students 20 (M)

5(F)

30 (M)

10(F)

50(M)

15(F)

4.1.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

Examples of Alaska curricula and teacher-training activities include the following:

• The Alaska WAC created Alaska-specific curricula. Members have partnered with Alaska 

Pacific University’s graduate program in outdoor education and work with graduate students 

to create wind energy curricula for grades K-6, as well as energy efficiency curricula. The 

team is also developing wind energy courses at the WAC host school. 
18

• The Alaska WAC hosted a Wind for Schools Energy Educator’s webinar in August 2010 for 

teachers who could not attend training in Anchorage. The webinar provided an introduction 

to the project and the application process, as well as project steps, turbine installation, wind 

energy basics, KidWind Project and NEED Energy Kits, and Wind for Schools curricula.

4.1.3 Funding Update

According to the Alaska team, the greatest hurdle is lack of funding. This issue makes it difficult to 

organize teacher training and make it accessible to interested educators. The greatest hurdles for the 

schools appear to be generating enough project funding and garnering support from the school 

district. Funding must be addressed on an individual school basis.

The team gained the support of several project sponsors immediately after implementing the 

program in the state and continues to seek additional partners. The most significant partnership has 

been with the U.S. Coast Guard, which donated the turbines for the Juneau and Sitka projects. The 

Coast Guard is investigating the possibility of acquiring additional turbines to install at schools near 

other bases in Alaska. The Coast Guard also made significant in-kind donations of time, expertise, 

and the use of heavy equipment.

Lynden Transport, Lynden Air Cargo, and Alaska Marine Lines have donated up to $6,500 in

shipping costs for participating schools in 2010 and 2011. This donation covers the costs of barging 

the turbine, tower, and foundation from Seattle to Alaskan communities. The companies anticipate 

increasing the donation level as more schools participate.

4.1.4 Testimonials

"These students will gain experience with wind power that could lead to real job opportunities in 

their own villages maintaining, installing, and operating wind systems. They may also start thinking 

about wind as a possible alternative to the costly diesel that many communities now rely on for 

powering their communities."

Matt Hunter, math and physics teacher, Mount Edgecumbe High School, Sitka, Alaska 

"What we learn in Sitka will help us make strategic decisions regarding how to implement wind 

energy at other Coast Guard facilities, particularly at remote sites in Alaska. We are excited about 

this project that helps us in our objectives as well as helps the school and community."

Sudie Hargis, energy program specialist, U.S. Coast Guard
19

4.2 Arizona (Round 2)

The Arizona Wind for Schools project team has developed 

successful systems for fundraising, managing turbine 

installations, performing teachers’ workshops, engaging 

teachers, and performing direct education in K-12 

classrooms, including special program areas such as 

partnerships for service learning with university and 

community college students and a Wind Energy

Ambassadors project.

The Wind for Schools project team works closely with 

Northern Arizona University's (NAU's) Sustainable 

Energy Solutions Institute and its staff and researchers to

collaborate on projects and to develop advisory functions 

for the Wind for Schools project. The program team is also 

working closely with several partner schools and with 

Southwest Windpower (headquartered in Flagstaff) to

pursue funding for renewable energy installations at 

Native American schools.

Table 4 summarizes the five Arizona Wind for Schools 

installations to date. Planned installations for 2012 include 

the Moencopi Day School in Tuba City, the Hopi Day 

School in Kykotsmovi, and the N.A.T.I.V.E. Joint 

Technical Education District High School in Kayenta. 

4.2.1 Arizona WAC Activities

Examples of Arizona WAC activities include the 

following:

• Assisting with research or capstone projects in the 

electrical engineering, visual communications, 

environmental sciences, speech and communication, economics, management, mechanical 

engineering, and German classes at NAU. WAC members give presentations on wind energy 

and the Wind for Schools project in several of these classes. All student employment and much 

of the core staff time are funded through sources that were leveraged by DOE funding.

• Developing a First-Year Seminar at NAU for undergraduates in collaboration with the Global 

Learning Community Program, which allows for teaching as many as 20 freshmen about wind 

energy as it can be applied in Arizona communities. The First Year Seminar program 

encourages direct application of theory, both inside and outside of the classroom. The NAU 

SkyStream installation and other community installations will serve as living laboratories to 

give students up-to-date information and technical training. This class will also provide a pool 

of students to serve on an action research team, partnering with Flagstaff teachers to present 

wind energy lessons and activities.

WAC

Landsward Institute at Northern Arizona 

University (NAU)

www.landsward.nau.edu/windforschools.html

WAC Director

Karan English (acting)

Landsward Institute

Northern Arizona University

PO Box 5845

Flagstaff, AZ 86011

928-523-0670

karan.english@nau.edu

State Facilitator

Karin Wadsack

Northern Arizona University

PO Box 5845

Flagstaff, AZ 86011

928-523-0715

karin@wadsack.com

Staff

Pat Ponce, Landsward Institute

Mansel Nelson, Institute for Tribal 

Environmental Professionals

Allison Kipple, NAU Electrical Engineering 

department

Steve Atkins, NAU Mechanical Engineering 

department

Under contract: Round 2

Number of installations: 5
20

• Working with Southwest Windpower, NextEra Energy Resources, and other utility and industry 

partners to develop summer internships. Southwest Windpower hired two students for design 

work in spring 2011 and also offered seats in the company’s dealer/installer training program to 

students from Coconino Community College’s Alternative Energy Technician program in 

exchange for the trained individual performing one Wind for Schools installation.

• Performing wind turbine design challenges for middle and high school students in Gallup, New 

Mexico (November 2010), middle school students from five Navajo Nation schools at an 

Engineering Science Day at NAU (April 2011), 7th-grade science students at Flagstaff Junior 

Academy and 7th-grade science students at Mount Elden Middle School (June 2011).

Table 4. Arizona Installations Summary

Install Date Location Project Details

November 

2011

NAU's Applied 

Research & 

Development 

building, Flagstaff

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7 on a 70-foot monopole tower

- The student-funded NAU Green Fund provided $25,000 for the 

installation

- Southwest Windpower donated the turbine and tower

- All project labor (including electrical design, ground work, and the 

installation) was donated through NAU partnerships

November 

2011

The Orme School, 

Mayer

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7 on a 45-foot tower

October 

2011

Saint Michael Indian 

School, St. Michaels

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7 on a 55-foot tower

- NAU secured $100,000 in funding for renewable energy and 

energy efficiency infrastructure improvements

- Saint Michael Indian School used private funding to cover the 

installation costs for its solar PV and solar thermal installations

(part of the $100,000)

- NAU's construction department covered the Skystream

installation costs (~$4,000)

October 

2011

Williams 

Elementary/Middle 

School, Williams

- Turbine: Skystream 3.7

July 2011 Ponderosa High 

School, Flagstaff

- Turbine: 160-Watt Air Breeze

- Donors: Southwest Windpower (donated turbine), Arizona Public 

Service ($5,000), NextEra Energy, Prometheus Renewables

- High school students coordinated and performed a public 

meeting to present the project to neighbors, parents, and other 

Flagstaff high school students

- The turbine is part of a hybrid solar and wind energy off-grid 

installation designed by NAU students, who are also designing 

and performing energy education activities with the high school 

students

- NAU students worked with the installation company and 

Coconino Community College students in the alternative energy 

technician program. The community college students receive lab 

service learning credits for assisting with the installation

- A success story about this project is available on the Wind 

Powering America website at 

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/filter_detail.asp?itemid=3236
21

Figure 5. Arizona Wind for Schools project locations

4.2.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

The Arizona WAC has promoted curricula development and teacher training by:

• Collaborating with the NATIVE Joint Technical Education District (includes Kayenta, Tuba 

City, Pinyon, Window Rock, and several other school districts) to plan renewable energy 

technology curriculum at multiple potential installations

• Working with Coconino Community College students to help them earn lab service learning 

credits for working on Wind for Schools project installations and for teaching wind energy 

concepts in partner K-12 schools. Coconino has a program in which high school students can 

enroll in the alternative energy technician program, earning credits at their high schools while 

they work toward community college degrees 

• Pairing NAU student interns with Flagstaff teachers to create wind energy curriculum and 

activities and research wind power initiatives. Activities include devising wind energy lesson 

plans to give to teachers, creating activities for hands-on wind energy learning, creating 

Powerpoint presentations for teachers to present to classes, presenting wind energy lessons to 

students in classes and helping with their activities, assisting with wind-related field trips, and 

assisting teachers with renewable energy curriculum by helping in class and developing more 

lesson plans
22

• Partnering NAU student interns with the communications department at the university to 

integrate wind energy into the curriculum (for example, journalism and public speaking 

courses)

• Presenting wind energy concepts to high school environmental science students at Northland 

Preparatory Academy 

• Performing anemometer activities with 2nd-grade students at Killip Elementary School

• Partnering NAU students with a Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy high school 

environmental science teacher and a Flagstaff Junior Academy middle school science teacher to 

present wind power lessons and activities and help with field trips.

The Arizona WAC has engaged in many teacher-training activities. Examples include:

• The team worked with NEED Project organizers to recruit teachers for the March 2011

teachers’ workshop in Ft. Defiance. The NEED Project provided 14 wind energy kits for 

different age groups, four of which were loaned to the STAR school.

• A graduate assistant worked with the NEED Project and Paradise Valley School District’s 

Center for Research in Engineering, Science, and Technology to host a February 2011 wind 

energy teachers’ workshop for 20 teachers from more than a dozen Arizona schools.

• WindSenator Jeff Hines at Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff is leading teachers’ 

workshops in northern Arizona and teaching wind energy lessons from the KidWind and NEED

Projects in his middle school science class.

• Mansel Nelson led a teachers’ workshop in Grants, New Mexico in December 2010 for 20

teachers from the Navajo Nation. 

4.2.3 Funding Update

• The Arizona Technology and Research Initiative Fund, governed by the Arizona Board of 

Regents, awarded nearly $50,000 to the Arizona Wind for Schools project to supplement DOE 

funding for the July 2010-June 2011 fiscal year. Some of this funding was reallocated to fund 

student internships for the spring 2011 semester. Additional reallocation of this funding 

supported a teachers’ workshop at Shonto Preparatory Technology High in May 2011 and 

partially supported two student workers during summer 2011. This funding also covered the 

costs of a structural engineer’s calculations for permitting the Ponderosa High School wind 

turbine installation. 

• NextEra Energy Resources, the largest wind developer in the United States, has been working to 

develop several wind projects in northern Arizona. The Arizona Wind for Schools project team 

developed a relationship with NextEra managers to determine whether anyone is interested in 

working with a local school in each NextEra project development area. The team received 

$60,000 in funding support.

• NAU is developing a Sustainable Energy Solutions Institute, which will serve as an umbrella 

entity to support all efforts in sustainable energy education, research, and outreach at NAU, 

including the Wind for Schools project. The Arizona Board of Regents’ Technology and 

Research Initiative Fund funded the establishment of this institute for FY11 and FY12 and will 
23

provide some support to leverage the Wind for Schools project and its funding. The Institute 

will allow the Wind for Schools project to pursue much greater sources of funding through 

university connections and with outside entities than it could without this larger support 

organization.
24

4.3 Colorado (Round 1)

In 2009, the Colorado WAC and the Colorado Governor's Energy 

Office selected six rural schools to participate in the Wind for 

Schools project: Arriba-Flagler Consolidated School District High 

School in Flagler, Burlington High School in Burlington, Kit 

Carson High School in Kit Carson, Stratton High School in 

Stratton, Walsh High School in Walsh, and Wellington Middle 

School in Wellington. Each school received a $5,000 grant from 

the Governor's Energy Office to help purchase and install a 

Skystream 3.7 turbine. Students and staff from the Colorado 

WAC helped to design the installations, and NREL agreed to 

purchase the renewable energy certificates5

The following table summarizes the Colorado installations. Note 

that the initial six installations were among the first for the Wind 

for Schools project, and WAC Director Kostrzewa provided 

extensive documentation of each project to aid future installations. 

We have included his project documentation here after the 

summary table.

from the first projects. 

The WAC has installed three more projects since then: Ponderosa 

High School in Parker, Park County School District in Fairplay, 

and Nederland Middle/High School in Nederland. Planned 

projects for 2012 include Cherry Valley Elementary in 

Franktown, Flagstone Elementary School in Castle Rock, and 

Florence High School in Florence.

Table 5. Colorado Installations Summary

Install Date Location

April 2012 Nederland Middle/High School

March 2012 Park County RE-2 School District, Fairplay

January 2011 Ponderosa High School, Parker

February 2010 Wellington Middle School, Wellington

December 2009 Arriba-Flagler Consolidated School District High School, Flagler

December 2009 Burlington High School, Burlington

December 2009 Kit Carson School District, Kit Carson

December 2009 Stratton High/Middle School, Stratton

November 2009 Walsh High School, Walsh

 5 Renewable energy certificates represent the environmental attributes of power produced from renewable resources. 

By separating the environmental attributes from the power, clean power generators are able to sell the electricity 

they produce to power providers at a competitive market value. The additional revenue generated by the sale of the 

renewable energy certificates covers the above-market costs associated with producing power made from renewable 

energy sources. 

WAC

Colorado State University (CSU) -

Fort Collins

www.engr.colostate.edu/ALP

WAC Director

Michael Kostrzewa, P.E.

Senior Research Associate

Colorado State University

Department of Mechanical 

Engineering

Campus Delivery 1374

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1374

970-491-7709

michael@engr.colostate.edu

State Facilitator

Tom Potter

All American Energy

515 S. Magnolia Lane

Denver, CO 80224

303-503-2230

tpotter@allamericanenergy.com

Under contract: Round 1

Number of installations: 9
25

Figure 6. Colorado Wind for Schools project locations

4.3.1 Walsh High School

On November 4, 2009, Walsh High School became the first Colorado Wind for Schools project 

school to install a Skystream wind turbine. The school installed a 45-foot, three-piece sectional 

tower on a 12-foot pier foundation and connected to the service at the bus building. Sand Arroyo 

Energy LLC from nearby Springfield installed the turbine, and the electric utility is Southeast 

Colorado Power Association, the local Touchstone Energy Cooperative and member co-op of

Tri-State Generation and Transmission. Following some issues to reconfigure the voltage to the 

turbine, it began generating power on December 3, 2009. Communications were established to 

the turbine via the Skyview 2.0 software on December 16, 2009. The dedication ceremony was

held on February 5, 2010.
26

Table 6. Walsh High School Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Walsh turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• Cooper Clark Foundation: $4,000 grant

• School contribution: $1,539.

4.3.2 Kit Carson School District

On December 14, 2009, Kit Carson School District installed a turbine on a 45-foot, three-piece 

sectional tower on a SMaRT foundation. The service was connected to a meter located about 250 

feet away that serves the community park lighting and building (the school pays for the electric 

service through this meter). Advanced Energy Systems LLC from Denver installed the turbine,

and the electric utility is K.C. Electric Association, the local Touchstone Energy Cooperative and 

member co-op of Tri-State Generation and Transmission. Communications were established via 

the SkyView 2.0 software between the turbine and a computer in the science room in December

2009.

However, the science teacher soon noticed that the turbine shut down prematurely in 14-mph 

winds. He shut down the electric service to the turbine at the service connection to avoid damage 

to the turbine. A blade imbalance was originally suspected, but this was ruled out after a 

February 2010 site visit by WAC Director Kostrzewa, who confirmed that the blades were 

installed correctly and the brake was set in moderate winds. A short in the inverter was 

suspected, and Southwest Windpower shipped a new wind turbine and blade set to the school. 

Tim Olsen of Advanced Energy Systems and Kostrzewa replaced the turbine on April 30, 2010. 

The turbine was deemed fully operational, and communications were established to the school.

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Actual

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727 $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214 $3,214

Foundation drill & pour WT Contractors, Ulysses $1,950 $1,950

Anchor bolt kit Sand Arroyo Energy LLC $605 $605

Turbine/tower erection Sand Arroyo Energy LLC $2,500 $1,500

Skylevel kit Sand Arroyo Energy LLC $0 $90

Electric wiring & disconnect boxes McDonald Electric $375 $725

Inspection Fee McDonald Electric $120

Electrician McDonald Electric $325 $1,108

TOTALS $12,696 $13,039
27

Table 7. Kit Carson School District Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Kit Carson turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• Cooper Clark Foundation: $4,000 grant

• Kit Carson Rural Development: $250 grant

• Kit Carson State Bank: $250 grant

• School contribution: $1,964.

4.3.3 Stratton High/Middle School

Stratton High/Middle School installed a wind turbine on December 15, 2009. The school 

installed a 45-foot, three-piece sectional tower on a SMaRT foundation. The service was 

connected to the school’s main meter located near the football field. Advanced Energy Systems 

LLC from Denver installed the turbine, and the electric utility is K.C. Electric Association, the 

local Touchstone Energy Cooperative and member co-op of Tri-State Generation and 

Transmission. Communications were established to the turbine via the Skyview 2.0 software.

Due to insufficient clearance for the fence surrounding the transformer, the turbine did not begin 

generating power until the electrical permit was approved on December 15, 2009. The school 

was the first Colorado Wind for Schools project to register its turbine with the Center for 

Advanced Energy Studies site at Idaho National Laboratory, and results were available online on 

January 14, 2010.

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Actual

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727 $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214 $3,214

SMaRT foundation kit Southwest Windpower $768 $768

Foundation excavate/pour/install Advanced Energy LLC $380

Backhoe for trenching Rebeltec Communications LLC $75

Trenching (198 feet) Rebeltec Communications LLC $198

Concrete for foundation (5.5 SX) Halde Redi-Mix, Inc. $687

Turbine/tower erection Advanced Energy LLC $4,300

Computer for Skyview Dell $615

TOTALS $7,709 $13,964
28

Table 8. Stratton High/Middle School Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Stratton turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• Cooper Clark Foundation: $4,000 grant

• School contribution: $1,496.

4.3.4 Burlington High School

Burlington High School installed a wind turbine on December 18, 2009. The school installed a 

45-foot, three-piece sectional tower on a SMaRT foundation. The service was connected to the 

school’s main meter. Eastern Plains Wind Energy LLC from Bennett installed the turbine, and 

the electric utility is Burlington Municipal Utilities. Communications were established to the 

turbine via the Skyview 2.0 software, and the turbine began generating power on December 18, 

2009. 

Table 9. Burlington High School Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Burlington High School turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214

SMaRT foundation kit Southwest Windpower $768

Foundation excavate/pour/install Advanced Energy Systems $2,278

Turbine/tower erection Advanced Energy Systems $2,277

Electric wiring & disconnect boxes Advanced Energy Systems $172

Electrician Advanced Energy Systems $560

TOTALS $12,996

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Actual

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727 $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214 $3,214

SMaRT foundation kit Southwest Windpower $768 $768

Foundation excavate/pour/install Eastern Plains Wind Energy $3,100 $3,100

Turbine/tower erection Eastern Plains Wind Energy

Electric wiring & disconnect boxes City of Burlington-In Kind $500

Electrician City of Burlington-In Kind $500

TOTALS $10,809 $11,809
29

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• Cooper Clark Foundation: $4,000 grant

• School contribution: $1,496.

Figure 7. Limited funding didn’t deter Burlington High School science teacher Jim Jones, who dug 

the foundation for his school’s turbine by hand. Photo from Mike Kostrzewa, Colorado State 

University, NREL/PIX 16847

4.3.5 Arriba-Flagler High School

Flagler High School installed a wind turbine on December 20, 2009. The school installed a 45-

foot, three-piece sectional tower on a SMaRT foundation. The service was connected to the 

school’s main meter. Eastern Plains Wind Energy LLC from Bennett installed the turbine, and 

the electric utility is K.C. Electric Association, a member co-op of Tri-State Generation and

Transmission.

The turbine ordered was for 208V, three-phase service, but the service at the connection point is 

single-phase 120V. Communications could not be established between the turbine and the 

school. The science teacher installed the SkyView software on a laptop and established 

communications with the turbine. He ran Southwest Windpower’s gridfix software patch and 

reconfigured the turbine, allowing the turbine brake to release and begin generating power on 

January 12, 2010. At the time, the turbine was operational but not communicating to the school.

The team worked with Southwest Windpower (beginning in January 2010) for 6 months to 

develop a solution using an external antenna. The WAC director and an undergrad student 

visited the school in July 2010 with a white Laird fiberglass omni-directional antenna and a 

Swann high-gain antenna. The strength at the base of the tower was about -75 db, but the signal 

never progressed above about -65 db, and it dropped off just before reaching the building. 

Discussions with technical staff at Southwest Windpower narrowed the problem to the 

transmission of the signal rather than signal reception, and this then led to the antenna connection 

as the likely culprit. Southwest Windpower sent a replacement inverter and contracted with 

Cheyenne Wind Energy Inc. to make the repairs on September 8, 2010. Communications were 

established at the school (the signal was -74 to -80 dbm while inside the server room).
30

Table 10. Arriba-Flagler High School Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Arriba-Flagler turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• Cooper Clark Foundation: $4,000 grant

• School contribution: $500.

4.3.6 Wellington Middle School

Wellington Middle School installed a wind turbine on February 15, 2010. The school installed a 

45-foot, three-piece sectional tower on a 17-foot pier foundation. The turbine was connected to 

the school’s electrical meter through the electrical room, about 360 feet from the school and 

another 150 feet through the building to the service connection. HydroElectric LLC from Bellvue

installed the turbine. The electrical permit was approved in June 2010, and the interconnection 

agreement with Xcel Energy was completed in August 2010. The turbine was then energized, 

communications were established to the turbine via the Skyview 2.0 software, and the turbine 

began generating power on August 13, 2010.

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Actual

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727 $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214 $3,214

SMaRT foundation kit Southwest Windpower $768 $768

Foundation excavate/pour/install Local contractor $500

Turbine/tower erection Eastern Plains Wind Energy $3,100 $3,100

Electric wiring & disconnect boxes Est. $100

Electrician Local electrician $400

TOTALS $11,809 $10,809
31

Table 11. Wellington Middle School Project Cost Summary

Funding sources for the Wellington turbine:

• Colorado Governor's Energy Office: $5,000 grant

• Colorado Department of Local Affairs: $7,500 grant

• NREL renewable energy credit purchase: $2,500

• New Belgium Brewing: $5,000 grant

• Brendle Group/Northern Colorado Clean Energy Cluster: $800 grant

• Wellington Alumni Association: $1,000 grant

• Community Foundation: $2,174 grant

• Bohemian Foundation: $9,492 grant

• PSD Facilities: $3,000

• Wellington Middle School contribution: $2,500

• STEM loans: $6,872.

4.3.7 Ponderosa High School

Ponderosa High School6

 6 A feature story about this installation is available on the Wind Powering America website at 

was selected as one of two schools to be included in the 2010 Colorado 

Wind for Schools project. A subsurface soils investigation was conducted in July and used to 

secure a foundation design from Tower Engineering Professionals in August. In September, the 

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/filter_detail.asp?itemid=3007

Item Vendor

Estimated

Cost

Actual

Cost

Skystream 3.7 Wind Generator Southwest Windpower $3,727 $3,727

Skystream 3.7 Sectional Monopole Tower - 45' Southwest Windpower $3,214 $3,214

Skystream 3.7 Accessories and Parts Southwest Windpower $1,477 $0

Foundation excavate/pour/install Hydroelectric, LLC $3,926 $6,900

Turbine/tower erection Hydroelectric, LLC $0 $3,900

Testing, Permitting, and Inspection EEC (Local geotech engr.) $2,250 $2,493

Boring Colorado Boring $7,246 $7,000

Electrical Design Local electrician $5,000 $4,593

Electrical Parts, Labor, and Permit Local electrician $6,026 $10,561

Site Restoration Hydroelectric, LLC $3,500 $750

TOTALS $36,366 $43,138
32

school district selected Tim Olsen of Denver-based Advanced Energy Systems as the installer 

through an RFP process. The WAC and the Douglas County School District met with Pikes Peak 

Regional Building Department officials to begin the permitting process. The Colorado WAC 

helped district personnel in applying for the zoning approval in early October in time for a 

meeting with the Douglas County Planning Board in November. The turbine was installed on 

January 15, 2011.

Figure 8. Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado installed its turbine in January 2011. 

Photo by Frank Oteri, NREL/PIX 18440

4.3.8 Park County RE-2 School District

Certified Skystream dealer Ted Palpant of Colorado Solar Energy, Inc. in Buena

Vista, Colorado, installed the project. The district received CSU's $10,000 grant award in 

October 2011, and the foundation was excavated soon after. Westward Hoe, Inc. of

Fairplay donated the excavation and trenching, and Everist Materials of Silverthorne donated the 

concrete. The crew assembled the tower and the turbine after the concrete was poured and 

finished. The Colorado Solar Energy crew and Kostrzewa assembled the turbine and erected the 

tower on November 16, 2011. The electrical connection was completed on December 9, and the 

turbine was operational in early 2012.

4.3.9 Nederland Middle/High School

Tim Olsen from Advanced Energy Solutions, his crew, Kostrzewa, and Scott Bassett from 

Bassett & Associates assembled the turbine and erected the tower in October 2011. The school 

hosted a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony on November 10. An interconnection

agreement with Xcel Energy must be approved before the turbine can be energized.
33

4.3.10 Colorado WAC Activities

The Colorado WAC team has managed the Colorado anemometer loan program since

2008. Prior to 2008, the Governor's Energy Office managed the program, contracting with local 

installers and sending the raw wind data to the University of North Dakota for analysis. With 

WPA support, a contract was secured with the Governor's Energy Office to establish the 

Colorado anemometer loan program at CSU. WAC Director Michael Kostrzewa oversees a team 

of student installers and wind resource analysts. They install anemometer towers across 

Colorado, analyze the wind resource, update the wind data from all of the historical sites in the 

program, and publish all data online7

4.3.11 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

. All CSU WAC students have an opportunity to work on 

the program to learn 1) how to site and install a tower for wind prospecting and development, 2) 

how to analyze wind data, and 3) how to site, permit, and install a small-scale wind turbine.

Examples of teacher-training activities include the following:

• CSU hosted a half-day KidWind Project workshop in January 2012 for approximately 20 

K-12 teachers. The workshop provided information and training for teachers interested in 

the KidWind Challenge in 2012.

• CSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted the 2011 KidWind WindSenator 

training on the CSU campus on July 24 – 29, 2011 for about 30 attendees. Six educators 

from Colorado attended. After this year’s training, Colorado now has seven 

WindSenators. Based on the success of this workshop, CSU hopes to host this training in 

future years.

• The NEED Project hosted a wind energy workshop for teachers at Kit Carson School in 

August 2010.

• The WAC team worked with the Colorado Governor's Energy Office to select two 

Colorado educators to attend the KidWind WindSenators teacher training in Malta, New 

York, in August 2010. Walsh Elementary School teacher Janet Chenoweth and Rick Shin

(formerly with the NREL education program) represented Colorado, and each received a 

$2,500 grant to cover tuition.

4.3.12 Funding Update

In September 2011, CSU proposed a $112,000 project to Don Anderson of Enterprise Products 

Company for an application to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to 

use Supplemental Environmental Project funds to fund three to four wind turbine projects at 

Colorado schools. The funding was approved and will be used in 2012 for the projects in 

Douglas County and Fremont County.

 7 See www.engr.colostate.edu/ALP for an overview and the latest status of the program.
34

Colorado is a Round 1 state, and the Colorado WAC is now transitioning away from DOE funding. 

In November 2011, Larry Flowers from the American Wind Energy Association secured a 

challenge grant from the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory for a match of $20,000 when 

the WAC raises $40,000. The WAC launched a website that allows online giving8

4.3.13 Testimonials

. Finally, Susan 

Innis of Vestas and Mark Jacobson of Invenergy LLC are recruiting donations from other Colorado 

wind energy entities.

“It’s a great fit for our area in that wind is something we deal with all of our lives around here. It’s 

great to see it finally put to some productive use.” 

Kyle Hebberd, superintendent, Walsh School District, Colorado

“These wind turbine projects represent another important way all regions of Colorado are 

participating in our New Energy Economy. Educating today’s young people about the benefits and 

mechanics of renewable energy systems prepares them for a wealth of future opportunities and 

demonstrates the crucial role our rural communities can play in mapping out a new energy future 

for Colorado and the country.” 

Bill Ritter, former Colorado Governor

“When we were working on the Wind for Schools project, which is an awesome program, we kind 

of saw this as the tip of the iceberg.” 

Bill Peisner, school counselor, Wellington Middle School, Colorado (referring to plans to expand 

on Wind for Schools with a two- classroom, net-zero science lab that will use renewable energy)

 8 https://advancing.colostate.edu/1929
35

4.4 Idaho (Round 1)

Although the Idaho Wind for Schools team succeeded in 

installing turbines at seven schools, the team has suffered 

several setbacks since the beginning of 2011. The Public 

Utility Regulatory Policy Act size limit in the state was 

reduced from 10 MW to 100 kW, the sales tax rebate for 

qualifying renewable energy machinery was not renewed, and 

three educational reform bills were passed. As a result, few 

schools in the state are interested in installing turbines. 

Another setback involved the Dehryl Dennis Technical Center 

project in Boise, which never progressed past the planning 

stage due to external forces beyond the WAC’s control (see 

Section 4.4.1 for more information on this project). Finally, 

the Idaho Wind Working Group held its final meeting on 

March 14, 2012.

As a result of these setbacks, the Idaho WAC team now 

focuses on INL database improvements, curricula 

development, and outreach activities instead of school turbine 

installations. The table below summarizes the seven turbines 

installed to date by the Idaho Wind for Schools team. 

Table 12. Idaho Installations Summary

Install Date Location Project Details

October 2010 Midway Middle 

School and Rigby 

High School, 

Rigby

(two installations)

- Midway Middle School and Rigby High School each received 

$10,666 from Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Grant. Students 

assisted with the ground assembly of the turbine with guidance 

from BSU WAC personnel

- The Blue Sky Grant funds were used to purchase the turbines, 

45-foot towers, gin-poles and hinge plates, and foundation bolt 

kits. Funds were also used to pay for the net metering fees, the 

electrical permits, and electrical materials

- H & H Utility Contractors Inc. provided a small crane, bucket 

truck, and crew to erect the towers and turbines. Aldon Hanson 

donated the rebar and the forms for the foundation. Tupper 

Excavation donated digging and trenching equipment and labor to 

run the conduit. Curtis Electric donated electrical labor

August 2010 Richard McKenna 

Charter High 

School, Mountain 

Home

- A dedication ceremony was held on September 20, 2010

- BSU purchased the Skystream system, the interface kit, and the 

foundation bolt kit using remaining funds from a Tidwell 

Foundation donation

- The school purchased the tower and paid for the net metering 

fee, the electrical permit, soil samples and engineering drawings, 

the wire, conduit, an electrical meter, and the meter housingLowe’s donated concrete, and AC Lot donated the rebar for the 

WAC

Boise State University (BSU) 

http://coen.boisestate.edu/WindEnergy

WAC Director

John Gardner

Director, CAES Energy Efficiency 

Research Institute

College of Engineering

Boise State University 

1910 University Drive

Boise, ID 83725-2075

208-426-5702

jgardner@boisestate.edu

State Facilitator

Sandy Cardon

Project Manager, Research Engineer

Boise State University

1910 University Drive

Boise, ID 83725-2075

208-949-3849

sandycardon@boisestate.edu

Under contract: Round 1

Number of installations: 7
36

Install Date Location Project Details

foundation. Doug Mayne donated the digging equipment and the 

concrete labor, Mark Hiddleston of H&H Utility donated the truck 

and winch for the tilt-up tower, and Grubb Brothers Signs donated 

the display sign

August 2009 Pocatello 

Community 

Charter School, 

Pocatello

- Pocatello Community Charter School received $12,500 in 

funding from the Lowe's Toolbox for Educators, more than double 

the amount requested

- In April 2009, the Pocatello planning and zoning committee 

approved the permits to erect a Skystream on a 45-foot monopole 

tower. Many community members testified in support of the 

turbine project; nobody testified in opposition. The committee 

unanimously approved the permits

- Many parents and local businesses contributed to the effort.

Program partner H & H Utility Contractors Inc. provided a crane 

and bucket truck to erect the tower at no cost

- On September 23, 2009, the public attended a dedication and 

ribbon-cutting ceremony that celebrated “Pocatello’s First Wind 

Turbine.” The mayor was the event’s keynote speaker

July 2009 Shelley High 

School, Shelley

- Shelley High School received $4,000 in funding from the Lowes 

Toolbox for Educators, which covered the costs of the turbine and 

foundation bolt kit

- Local donations paid for conduit and wiring, a backhoe 

contractor, concrete for the foundation, and the electric meter

- Contractors poured the foundation in June 2009, and on July 28, 

2009, Shelley-based LC Insulation erected the turbine

October 2008 Jerome Middle 

School, Jerome

- Students assisted with the ground assembly of the turbine, with 

guidance from BSU WAC personnel

- The Jerome School District spent ~$3,900 to purchase a 45-foot 

monopole tower and apply for permits and interconnection 

agreements

- H & H Utility Contractors, Inc. provided a small crane, bucket 

truck, and crew to erect the tower and turbine

- The BSU WAC used $4,600 from a Tidwell Idaho Foundation 

donation to purchase the turbine, bolt kit, and related equipment

- Community supporters included Starr Corporation, Portneuf 

Electric-Brett, Power by Jake, Lee Nunnally Masonry Inc., Platt 

Electric, and Triple C Concrete

- Permitting was more of a challenge than anticipated. Jerome 

Middle School is a new school co-located with a recent housing 

subdivision. A large, coordinated group of local residents attended 

the planning and zoning meeting to speak against granting the 

conditional use permit. A smaller number of people testified in 

favor. WAC leader Todd Haynes and then-state facilitator Brian 

Jackson testified in favor and answered questions regarding the 

turbine. The commission granted the permit

- The Jerome installation generated positive press. Project 

sponsors, local news media, and other interested parties from the 

local community participated in a turbine dedication ceremony on 

November 12, 2008

August 2008 Skyline High 

School, Idaho 

Falls

- The installation was a collaborative effort among INL, Idaho Falls 

Power, Wheeler Electric, and the Idaho Falls School District #91
37

Figure 9. Idaho Wind for Schools project locations

4.4.1 The Installation that Didn’t Happen: Dehryl Dennis Technical Center

Although the planned Dehryl Dennis Technical Center project in Boise never made it past the 

planning stage, the planning process details are provided here to show how external forces beyond 

the WAC’s control can sometimes halt a project.

Teacher champion James Cupps received a $50,000 Department of Labor grant for, among other 

objectives, installing a Wind for Schools project turbine. The school is located near the Boise 

Airport, so the installation required Federal Aviation Administration approval. In July 2010, the 

Administration determined that a Skystream turbine would not pose a hazard to air navigation and 

that no additional lighting or markings would be necessary. A required noise study was conducted. 

Building and conditional use permits for a 45-foot tower and Skystream were issued, and remaining 

project funds were secured.

In October 2010, the Boise School District denied Cupps’ request to install the turbine, even though 

he had already secured more than adequate funds for the project and had begun securing permits.
38

Furthermore, Ada County began drafting a restrictive wind ordinance that would not allow a turbine 

on the property. As a result, Cupps decided to spend his grant funds on alternative projects and not 

pursue a Wind for Schools turbine installation.

4.4.2 Idaho WAC Activities

Examples of Idaho WAC activities include the following:

• The group designed and maintains a comprehensive website

(http://coen.boisestate.edu/WindEnergy) that includes information on wind energy, the 

Wind for Schools project, Idaho wind data, BSU’s wind-energy research activities, industry 

links, and a roster of BSU alumni working in the wind industry. Thirteen Boise State 

graduates currently work in the wind industry (two of those students were Wind for Schools 

interns).

• The BSU WAC is collaborating with partners at INL to collect, analyze, and post 

meteorological data from potential wind sites around the state. Data are posted on two 

websites (INL posts the older data, BSU posts data from summer 2008 to the present at 

http://coen.boisestate.edu/WindEnergy/WindData/index.asp

• The Idaho State Kidwind Collaborative took place in April 2012.

). Most data were collected with 

anemometer towers provided by WPA’s anemometer loan program. 

• Gardner and Todd Haynes, the BSU WAC principals, serve on Idaho Strategic Energy 

Alliance task forces. Haynes left Boise State for INL but remains on the wind taskforce. 

Gardner serves on the biofuels task force. Wind task force members include representatives 

from Idaho Power, Avista, Rocky Mountain Power, Idaho Public Utilities Commission, 

Idaho Department of Commerce, Ridgeline Energy, Renaissance Engineering & Design, 

John Deere Renewables, RES America, and McDevitt-Miller Law Firm.

• Idaho WAC members worked with Ada County staff in 2012 regarding the local wind 

ordinance. Although a restrictive wind ordinance passed there in 2011, the county decided 

to update it by increasing the sound at the property line from 35dB to 60dBA. 

• In July 2010, the BSU WAC discussed renewable energy and wind energy with five groups 

of high school students at a youth rally. About 80 high school students from Idaho, 

Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska attended the discussions. This event was part of 

a weeklong high school student conference sponsored by Pacific Northwest electric co-ops 

and municipal utilities.

• In February 2010, Haynes met with and offered advice to a dozen middle school students 

engaged in the St. Joseph’s School Science Olympics on the importance of balancing 

turbine rotors. St. Joseph’s students took first and second place in the local competition, and 

17 students advanced to the national competition at the University of Illinois.
39

Figure 10. Turbine at Richard McKenna Charter High School in Mountain Home, Idaho. Photo from 

Todd Haynes, NREL/PIX 18602

• The Renewable Energy Systems ME 426/526 course is offered at BSU as an upper-level 

technical elective for engineering students. More than 120 undergraduate and graduate 

students have successfully completed this course. Paul Dawson, a mechanical engineering 

professor who specializes in atmospheric science and understands wind energy resource 

assessment techniques, teaches the course. (Dawson is also the principal investigator on a 

research project to forecast power output from a 42-MW wind facility.) The course covers 

wind, solar, and geothermal energy, but wind is the prevalent topic.

Table 13. Boise State University Enrollment for Renewable Energy Systems (ME 426/526)

Semester Undergraduates Graduates

Fall 2011 29 5

Fall 2010 12 16

Fall 2009 9 0

Fall 2008 9 3

Spring 2007 18 1

Spring 2006 12 8

Totals 89 33

122 total

• Over the years, students in the capstone design class for both mechanical engineering and 

electrical and computer engineering have chosen senior projects supplied by partners in the 

wind industry. To date, BSU engineering students have completed nine senior projects. In 

addition, a required senior class on fluid systems design (ME424) required wind turbine design 

as a project component in fall 2010. Students were provided with a standard DC 

motor/generator and asked to design a wind turbine that would fit within a volumetric 

constraint. The turbines were tested in the college wind tunnel.
40

4.4.3 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

Idaho WAC members have engaged in the following curricula development activities:

• The WAC collaborated with College of Southern Idaho and Idaho State University Energy 

Systems Technology and Education Center to develop wind energy technician training 

programs. Both programs verbally committed to their tech students performing maintenance on 

the Wind for Schools Skystream turbines as necessary. The BSU WAC will coordinate the 

maintenance (order parts, schedule bucket trucks, and make arrangement with K-12 schools), 

but wind tech students from the colleges will perform the maintenance. 

• James Cupps of the Dehryl Dennis Technical Center created an advisory board of renewable 

energy experts in Idaho to assist him with a new course series, Introduction to Renewable 

Energy. The two-semester class is a joint venture with College of Southern Idaho and Idaho 

State University, where students will receive joint credit at all participating institutions. State 

Facilitator Cardon sits on the advisory board committee.

• The WAC designated March as Idaho KidWind Collaborative Month. Rather than travel around

the state hosting KidWind challenges or expecting students and teachers to travel to compete, 

the team is drafting KidWind Collaborative rules to distribute to teachers who have participated 

in a KidWind or NEED training. Although teachers are free to make the classroom challenges 

as complicated (electricity generation, lift, aesthetics, gears, building a nacelle or generator) or 

as simple (electricity generation only) as they choose, the WAC is limiting the official 

collaborative to electricity generation only for simplicity’s sake. During the month of March, 

teams will test their turbines in their own classrooms and send the results to the WAC, who will 

post the results online and provide contact information so that students at different schools can 

e-mail or Skype about their designs and experiences. The WAC is emphasizing collaboration 

and has decided to not award prizes but rather to allow students to design, build, have fun, and 

learn from each other. 

• Teacher interns Katie Cutler and Shari Blom from the Jerome School District are creating and 

modifying lesson plans and compiling teacher resources. The WAC team identified “teacher

information overwhelm” as a major issue and will address it by asking teachers to review 

available lesson plans, identify the “best” lesson plans (based on limited preparation time, high 

student involvement, and lost cost), alter them to fit Idaho State standards, and compile them on 

a standardized lesson plan template for distribution on the WAC website. They are also 

compiling supporting materials, such as presentations, videos, and websites to assist teachers 

with wind energy curricula integration. To date, Cutler and Blom have created two week-long 

lesson plans from scratch (one for elementary school and one for middle school) that use the 

INL database; can be used in math, science, or language arts classes; and satisfy a wide variety 

of state standards. They will create a comparable lesson plan for high school students and will 

alter existing lesson plans instead of creating them from scratch.

The Idaho WAC has also engaged in the following teacher-training activities:

• In March 2012, the WAC presented to the Idaho Environmental Educator's Association 

Conference. The educators received training in applying wind energy concepts and the INL 

database into the classroom.
41

• The Idaho WAC has compiled a list of approximately 25 “key wind educators” around the state

and is contacting them to learn how they are integrating wind energy into their classrooms. The 

team is creating a wind educators network to share ideas and lesson plans with other teachers.

The WAC is also planning a pilot KidWind challenge for the 2011-2012 school year, with the 

intent that the winners of the challenge will take their turbines to the Invent Idaho Competition. 

• In July 2011, WAC members presented a workshop at the Idaho Science, Technology, 

Engineering, and Mathematics Summer Institute at the College of Southern Idaho to show 

teachers how to use the INL database and to practice teaching sample lesson plans using the 

Wind for Schools turbine data. At the same time, a wind educator gave a similar presentation at 

the same conference held concurrently at Northern Idaho College. 

• In June 2011, the WAC organized a Wind Educators Summit and invited key wind educators

from around the state to participate in a 2-day intensive hands-on training. Sixteen educators 

attended. Each K-12 educator received a KidWind kit and a wind meter for use in next year’s 

KidWind Collaborative, as well as KidWind training, materials, presentations, and other 

supporting materials for lesson plans. The teachers participated in two KidWind challenges 

(electricity generation and lift) and received training, practice, and lesson plans using the INL 

database.

• In July 2010, Idaho Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics sponsored a 4-day 

teacher training workshop for approximately 140 Idaho K-12 teachers at College of Southern 

Idaho in Twin Falls. An additional 110 teachers attended a simultaneous workshop at North 

Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. INL sponsored the workshops. On July 19, BSU WAC 

members gave a wind energy lecture and Wind for Schools introduction to about 25 teachers 

who signed up for the energy strand. On July 21, the BSU WAC led the same group on a tour of 

the nearby Cassia Gulch Windfarm.

• The American Wind Energy Association provided scholarships for several K-12 teachers 

throughout the nation to attend WINDPOWER 2009 in Chicago. Haynes assisted Katie Cutler, 

Jerome Middle School’s teacher/project champion, to prepare an application that highlighted 

participation in the Wind for Schools project. Cutler received a scholarship to attend the 

conference.

• In collaboration with INL and Skyline High, the BSU WAC participated in a teacher-training 

event in Idaho Falls in October 2008. The 2-day event, held in conjunction with the Idaho 

Science Teacher Summit, focused on energy and was open to all Idaho science teachers. The 

BSU WAC participated in a similar teacher-training event sponsored by INL in August 2009 in 

Idaho Falls. The 2009 workshop was larger than the prior year's event, with more than 100 

Idaho teachers in attendance. Haynes was part of a panel discussion to the general assembly 

focused on energy-related careers in Idaho and hosted a break-out session focused on Wind for 

Schools participation. The NEED Project was a co-sponsor and participant at both events.

4.4.4 Funding Update

According to the Idaho Wind for Schools team, funding is the biggest obstacle for interested 

schools. The State of Idaho and the utilities do not provide financial support for the program, and 

the Idaho WAC has not been able to identify parties interested in purchasing green tags.
42

• The WAC team tried to implement funding strategies in Idaho that were successful in other 

Wind for Schools project states, including applying for the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Business Enterprise Grant program and the Department of 

Environmental Quality’s Supplemental Environmental Project funds. So far the efforts have 

been unsuccessful. According to the Idaho state guidelines for use of Supplemental 

Environmental Project funds, the Wind for Schools project is not currently eligible.

• In FY08, the Tidwell Idaho Foundation awarded a grant of $15,000 to the Boise State 

Foundation in support of the Wind for Schools project. BSU used $4,600 of that 

contribution to purchase equipment at Jerome Middle School. Additional funds were used to 

purchase a weather station at Riverstone International School in Boise and equipment for 

the Richard McKenna Charter High School in Mountain Home.

• In October 2008, several schools (Rimrock, Pocatello Community Charter, Shelley, Firth) 

applied for a grant sponsored by Lowe’s Home Improvement. Pocatello and Shelley 

received funds; Rimrock re-applied for the Lowes grant in the subsequent funding round in 

February 2009 and did not receive funding. Richard McKenna Charter High School applied 

for the grant in fall 2009 and did not receive funding.

• Rocky Mountain Power offers a Blue Sky Grant program to eastern Idaho schools in that

service territory. Nine schools initially expressed interest in applying for that grant, but only

five remained interested through the grant process. On behalf of the five schools, the BSU 

WAC applied for $56,000 in funding through the Blue Sky Grant. Rocky Mountain Power

awarded the WAC $10,666 for each of three schools: Midway Middle School, Rigby High 

School, and Clark County Junior-Senior High. 

• The WAC continues to expand externally funded wind energy research. In 2010, the WAC 

started a 3-year, $300,000 grant from the Center for Advanced Energy Studies to develop a 

dynamic model of an innovative vertical-axis wind turbine design, the Blackhawk Turbine. 

The vertical-axis turbine incorporates complex helicopter concepts to overcome the selfstarting issue associated with the vertical-axis design. L. Damon Woods, a mechanical 

engineering graduate student, will apply his thesis work to this design. WAC director 

Gardner is leading the effort. A grant to improve forecasting for wind integration was 

completed, but the WAC procured modest follow-up funding through a partnership with 

Idaho Power and the Center for Advanced Energy Studies. 

• In May 2010, the Clark County School District superintendent informed the WAC that 

Clark County Junior/Senior High School would not be able to complete its planned project 

because 1) It could not meet its cost-share obligation, 2) The district experienced difficulty 

collecting donations (cash or in-kind) from the community, and 3) There was vocal 

opposition from the community. Rocky Mountain Power requested that the grant award be 

returned. Midway Middle School and Rigby High School used their awards to purchase

turbines, towers, foundation kits, and balance-of-plant equipment.
43

• The WAC currently does not have funds to address ongoing communication issues between 

the turbines and INL’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies database. The WAC requires 

additional funding to update the software, add more schools, and maintain the database. 

4.4.5 Testimonials

“We are a green school and happy to be sending that message. We really try to walk the talk here.” 

Martha Martin, principal, Pocatello Community Charter School, Idaho

“Being able to participate in this project is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Hopefully today’s 

students will remember this as an important change in technology and that they were part of it.” 

Vincent Wray, science teacher, Shelley High School, Idaho
44

4.5 Kansas (Round 1)

The Kansas Wind for Schools team has completed 16

installations (see Table 14 for a summary of turbine installations 

in the state to date). In November 2011, the WAC requested 

proposals for the 2011-2012 round of turbines, which is the fifth 

round in the state. Eleven schools submitted proposals. 

Installations are planned for 2012 at Claflin High School in 

Claflin, which received a $5,000 USDA grant to help with 

installation costs. The WAC team also plans to partner with 

Westar Energy on installations in Otis, Winfield, West Plains, 

and Circle. 

Table 14. Kansas Installations Summary

Install Date Location Project Details

May 2012 Circle High School, 

Towanda

- Skystream turbine installed near the sports complex; will 

help supply energy to the concession stand

- Area zoning was changed so that in the future the school 

can add a larger turbine

May 2012 Halstead High School, 

Halstead

- Skystream turbine

- Received $5,000 in funding from a USDA grant

October 

2011

Eudora High School, Eudora - Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- Received $5,000 in funding from USDA Rural 

Development Kansas 

October

2011

Jefferson West Middle/High 

School, Meriden

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- Received $5,000 in funding from USDA Rural 

Development Kansas

November 

2010

Solomon Schools, Solomon - Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- The 8th-grade students who prepared the proposal to the 

WAC in 2009 (in 9th grade at the time of the installation) 

discussed wind energy careers with the WAC students

- The local electric co-op, assisted by Bill Smalley of 

Westar, installed this turbine 

May 2010 Hope Street Academy, 

Topeka

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- In 2008, the science class began to pursue a turbine 

installation at the school. Students researched the project 

and wrote a winning grant proposal. They then presented 

to the city planning commission and Topeka City Council 

for zoning and approval, learning about city government in 

the process

- Westar and Smalley Energy installed the turbine 

WAC

Kansas State University (KSU)

www.eece.ksu.edu/psg/wac/

WAC Director

Ruth Douglas Miller

Associate Professor

Department of Electrical and 

Computer Engineering

Kansas State University

Manhattan, KS 66506

785-532-4596

rdmiller@ksu.edu

State Facilitator

None at this time. 

Formerly Dan Nagengast, Kansas 

Rural Center

Under contract: Round 1

Number of installations: 16
45

Install Date Location Project Details

May 2010 Appanoose Elementary 

School, Pomona

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- The Energy Savings Store (TESS) from Kansas City 

installed the turbine with financial help from Kansas City 

Power and Light and a Green Schools grant for $4,000. 

TESS did not allow Kansas City Power and Light to help 

with the installation, but it did provide labor at no cost to 

the school

- About 2 weeks after the installation, Kansas City Power 

and Light hosted a ribbon-cutting photo opportunity for the 

press, and WAC Director Douglas Miller spoke to the 4thgrade classes at the school

September 

2009

Pretty Prairie Junior High 

School, Pretty Prairie

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- Kansas Public Television station KTWU filmed the 

installation, and the segment aired in December 2009

April 2009 Blue Valley Junior/Senior 

High School, Randolph

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- The district's information technologies staff person, who 

is also a KSU employee, played a major role in installing 

the communications software. Blue Valley was the first 

Kansas turbine with live streaming data from INL

- Students assembled the turbine foundation cage

- Westar Energy's Green Team and Smalley Energy 

completed the installation

November 

2008

Ell-Saline Junior/Senior High 

School, Brookville

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

- Tradewinds Energy provided financial support

- Turbine was replaced in spring 2009 after water damage

September 

2008

Greenbush Education 

Center, Greenbush

- Skystream on a 60-foot monopole

September 

2008

Concordia High School, 

Concordia

- Skystream on a 60-foot monopole

September 

2008

Kansas State University, 

Manhattan

- Skystream on a 60-foot non-standard monopole

June 2008 Sterling High School, 

Sterling

- Skystream on a 60-foot monopole

June 2008 Walton Rural Life Charter 

Elementary, Walton

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole

May 2008 Fairfield High School, 

Langdon

- Skystream on a 33-foot monopole
46

Figure 11. Kansas Wind for Schools project locations
47

4.5.1 Kansas WAC Activities

Examples of Kansas WAC activities include the following:

• KSU offered the Wind and Solar Energy System Design class in fall 2010. Approximately 30 

students, mostly MS engineering students, completed the course, as well as four projects on 

campus and an additional eight projects by off-campus students. The projects ranged from 

assisting individual homeowners in estimating the cost and payback of a wind or PV system 

to performing the initial assessment and design of a commercial wind farm. Three students 

worked on designing the communications system for four turbines and two PV systems to be 

installed at the Riley County Shops; two continued on this project with support from a county 

grant. Thirteen MS students in power engineering enrolled in the class through a distance 

education program. Six of the students helped with turbine installations and communications 

for the ongoing Wind for Schools projects, as well as reviewing four new applications and 

making site visits. Most of these students continued working with the new schools and 

preparing USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant proposals. 

• Five students completed two wind siting research projects in spring 2010: a school and a 

convent. The school also consulted with Northern Power about turbine prospects, so the 

students were able to compare their results to Northern’s estimates. 

• Two graduate students and the WAC director attended the WINDPOWER conference in 

Dallas and the WPA All-States Summit in 2010. The WAC team presented one poster at 

WINDPOWER and a second at the IEEE Power and Energy Society’s Transmission and 

Distribution Conference in New Orleans in April 2010. Another poster presentation at the 

IEEE conference on modeling turbulence around trees and buildings to determine effects on 

wind turbines won a student award at the conference.

• KSU sealed a formal relationship with Wichita State University in spring 2010 to collaborate 

in wind energy research. The WAC also received a subcontract to develop the High Plains 

Small Wind Test Center at Colby Community College with support from Midwest Energy.

• KSU offers a 1-credit spring Wind Research class, which ensures students are available to 

help with Wind for Schools installations. 

• The WAC also engages students outside of class activities. During 2009, three MS 

candidates and eight undergraduate students participated in WAC activities outside of 

enrolled classes. One MS student received direct funding from the WAC; one MS and two 

undergraduate students were funded by the Power Affiliates Program, supported by a 

consortium of local electric utilities; and three undergraduate students and one MS student 

were supported by a National Science Foundation grant to incorporate sustainability 

principles into the undergraduate curriculum.

• In spring 2008, Douglas Miller taught a combined wind and solar system design class to 15 

students (three graduate students and 12 seniors). Eight students were involved in siting 

turbines at Wind for Schools project sites. During the fall 2008 semester, Douglas Miller 

directed eight undergraduate students in siting projects at Wind for Schools project sites, a 
48

Kansas Department of Transportation site, and a site belonging to the Kansas 4-H 

Foundation. Students also visited three large wind farms nearby and one turbine refurbishing 

shop.

Figures 12, 13. Turbine dedication ceremony at the Hope Street Academy. Photos from Ruth Douglas 

Miller, Kansas State University, NREL/PIX 17338 and NREL/PIX 17340

4.5.2 Curriculum and Teacher-Training Activities

Examples of Kansas WAC activities regarding curriculum and teacher training include the 

following:

• The WAC hosted one KidWind challenge on the KSU campus in fall 2010 with assistance 

from the Multicultural Engineering Program. The Women in Engineering and Science 

Program helped oversee a second one in Great Bend. WAC students trained the other groups 

to use the KSU “wind tunnel.” More than 100 K-12 students attended the challenge in Great 

Bend; about 20 middle school students attended the Multicultural Engineering Program event 

on campus.

• In August 2010, the WAC sent teacher Dean Stramel to New York for Wind Senator 

training. He will co-host Wind Senator training sessions at Ft. Hays with Ft. Hays State 

University science department head Paul Adams.

• Approximately 20 teachers attended a NEED Project teacher-training workshop in Newton in 

August 2009. 

4.5.3 Funding Update

Westar Energy approached the WAC with a proposal to fund Wind for Schools turbine installations 

as part of an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency. The utility plans to help the 

Topeka Public School District install a Northwind 100 or similar turbine but also wants to increase 

the number of Wind for Schools turbines installed across the state by donating between $250,000 

and $300,000 toward installations in Kansas. Approximately $37,000 of that amount will support the 

WAC in this effort. At present there is no intent to apply for USDA grants in addition to the Westar 
49

funds, but that is open to negotiation with the schools and with Westar. The Kansas WAC hopes to 

use the funding for two rounds of five schools each.

4.5.4 Testimonials

“Josh Cochran, a Greenbush teacher, says they have people stopping by almost daily to ask about the 

turbine, and they have had some 16,000 to 17,000 students working with it, one way or another, in 

the last year. And that’s just one installation. This program works, and it’s a tremendous draw.” 

Ruth Douglas-Miller, associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 

Kansas State University
50

4.6 Montana (Round 1)

Montana has installed 11 turbines to date (see Table 15). 

Although the Montana state facilitators continue to visit 

potential host schools and conduct program outreach, the 

program's main focus is providing support to the existing 

Montana host schools, troubleshooting technical problems, and 

identifying more ways to use the turbines in classroom 

curricula.

4.6.1 Montana WAC Activities

Examples of Montana WAC activities include the following:

• The MSU WAC demonstration project, which was

commissioned in 2008, is used for MSU monitoring and 

experimental projects. The project received funding from a 

Department of Environmental Quality technical support 

grant and consists of one grid-tied Skystream 3.7 wind 

turbine on a 50-foot tilt-down monopole tower.

• The Montana WAC launched a new mechanical engineering 

senior design project for the 2011-2012 academic year, 

which is the fourth project like this sponsored by WAC 

funding and supervised by WAC Director Larson. This 

project utilizes the MSU Skystream turbine as a capabilities 

development test bed for acquiring loading spectrum data from instrumented wind turbine 

blades. The project can be described as the Phase 2 extension of prior work involving application 

of several configurations of strain sensors to turbine blade surfaces on the MSU Campus

Skystream 3.7 turbine. Phase 1 of this project involved environmental surface preparation, strain 

sensor bonding, and sensor encapsulation with various protective over-coating treatments. Phase 

2 of this project focuses on the design, installation, and test of a real-time blade strain system 

mounted in the hub of the MSU turbine. Goals for Phase 2 include development of expertise with 

practical considerations involved with logging dynamic data from turbine blades in a costeffective manner, while providing engineering students in-depth exposure to wind energy 

components, data acquisition, and wireless communication.

• The MSU Wind Turbine Trainer was utilized for the first time in laboratory demonstrations in 

the fall 2011 ETME470 Alternative Energy Applications course. This trainer was designed and 

fabricated during the 2010-2011 academic term as a Montana WAC-sponsored interdisciplinary 

capstone senior design project. Montana WAC interns enhanced it during summer 2011 and

created several new lab exercises. The Turbine Trainer uses a variable-speed DC motor to 

simulate wind power and to turn a three-bladed hub. A low-speed shaft connects to a gearbox,

which steps up the rotational speed to the high-speed output shaft, which turns a DC generator to 

produce DC power proportional to rotational speed. The desktop-scale unit features variable 

pitch blades, yaw control, variable simulated wind speed via the DC drive motor, and numerous 

modes of fault simulation. All elements are controlled and monitored with a custom LabVIEW 

software routine, which has been designed and tailored for use in a classroom environment. 

WAC

Montana State University (MSU) -

Bozeman

www.coe.montana.edu/wind/

WAC Director

Robb Larson

Assistant Professor

Montana State University

220 Roberts Hall

22 Faculty Court

Bozeman, MT 59717

406-994-6420

rlarson@me.montana.edu

State Facilitator

Dave Ryan

National Center for Appropriate 

Technology (NCAT)

3040 Continental Dr.

Butte, MT 59701

406-494-4572

Under contract: Round 1, June 2007

Number of installations: 11
51

Table 15. Montana Installations Summary

Install Date Location

2008 Montana State University, Bozeman

2008 Cascade Middle School, Cascade High School, Cascade

2008 Fairfield High School, Fairfield

2008 Sleeping Giant Middle School; Park Senior High School, Livingston

2008 Stanford High School, Stanford

2010 Forsyth High School, Forsyth

2010 Glasgow High School, Glasgow

2010 Fergus High School, Lewiston

2010 Townsend Elementary and Middle School; Broadwater High School, Townsend

2010 Valier Elementary and Middle School; Valier High School, Valier

2010 Wolf Point High School, Wolf Point

Note: Lack of funding prevented turbine installations in 2009 and 2011.

Figure 14. Montana Wind for Schools project locations
52

• The Montana WAC has collaborated with the Wind Montana program and created 1-year 

certificate and 2-year degree Sustainable Energy Technician programs at four Montana 

campuses. This project, the result of a $2 million U.S. Department of Labor grant awarded in 

December 2008, is administered through the MSU-Great Falls College of Technology. Montana 

WAC Director Larson serves as a member of the academic implementation team for this project, 

advises administration and instructors on program content, and helps to represent the program at 

the national level. 

• WPA’s support of the Montana WAC permitted the fourth consecutive offering of ETME470 in 

fall 2011. All 18 enrolled students, representing several disciplines, completed the class. The first 

half of this professional elective class focused on wind resources, wind energy, power 

transmission, and the grid. The second half of the course included coverage of solar photovoltaic 

systems, solar hot water, fuel cell, micro hydroelectric generation systems, ground 

source/geothermal, and system integration topics. 

• In January 2009, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s office presented a Governor’s Clean 

Energy Award to Western Community Energy for the Wind for Schools project in Montana.

• Newspapers in 10 of the 11 host school communities published stories about the Montana 

program and projects during the installation periods in 2008 and 2010. Montana Public Radio 

produced a 3-minute story about the project and the Cascade installation, which it aired on 

National Public Radio across the state in October 2008. Governor Schweitzer participated in the 

installation and dedication of the Lewistown Wind for Schools project in May 2010. Several 

press releases and online forums published news of the Governor’s participation and 

endorsement of the program.

Figure 15. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer helps winch up the Lewistown turbine in Montana.

Photo from Sean Micken, NREL/PIX 17435
53

4.6.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities 

Montana WAC members have engaged in the following curricula development activities:

• In October 2008, the NEED Project hosted a wind energy curriculum workshop in Livingston. 

Twenty-five teachers from more than a dozen schools across the state, including all four 2008 

host schools, attended the workshop. Classroom teachers interested in the Wind for Schools 

project learned about wind energy, wind-generated electricity, and using data produced from 

wind installations in their classrooms. The Montana Office of Public Instruction approved the 

workshop for professional development and continuing education credits.

• In January 2009, Montana Wind for Schools facilitator Sean Micken attended the School 

Administrators of Montana conference and presented two workshops on wind energy education 

and the Wind for Schools project to approximately 60 teachers, administrators, and facilities 

managers. Micken also attended the legislative session in Helena to lobby state policymakers to 

provide funding for the Wind for Schools project, but his efforts to introduce a bill proved 

unsuccessful.

4.6.3 Funding Update

The primary source of funding for Wind for Schools projects in Montana has been Universal System 

Benefits funds administered by NorthWestern Energy and Montana-Dakotas Utilities. Facilitators 

secured this grant funding through NorthWestern Energy’s open RFP process and through direct 

solicitation to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s state energy office, which 

administers the funds collected by Montana-Dakotas Utilities. Other funding and support was 

provided by the host schools ($1,500 each), in-kind donations of labor and materials, a $2,000 

donation from wind project developer Invenergy for the Lewistown project, and a $4,000 grant from 

the Livingston Educational Foundation for the Livingston project. The six projects installed in 2010 

each received Treasury Department Section 1603 grants for 30% of the eligible project costs. A lack 

of funding prevented turbine installations in 2011.

4.6.4 Testimonials

“Montana’s on the move. This important program will not only provide a small amount of wind 

energy for rural Montana schools but will also educate tomorrow’s leaders on the value and 

importance of this renewable energy source.” 

Brian Schweitzer, Governor of Montana

“I believe that Wind for Schools Montana will be a valuable asset for our state for years to come...It 

is a new and unique program that reaches the heart of Montana.” 

Jon Tester, Montana Senator

“This broad-based collaborative project stands to enhance Montana State University’s energy 

research efforts, support engineering education, and help to demonstrate a commitment to 

sustainable and renewable energy on the Bozeman campus.” 

Tom McCoy, V.P. for Research, Creativity, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
54

4.7 Nebraska (Round 1)

The Nebraska Wind for Schools team has completed 18

installations to date (see Table 16). Planned projects for 2012 

include Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Public Schools in Laurel, 

Kimball Public Schools in Kimball, Norfolk Senior High 

School in Norfolk, Superior Public Schools in Superior, 

Raymond Central Public Schools in Raymond, and Meridian 

Public Schools in Daykin.

In addition to installed Wind for Schools projects, Nebraska is 

also home to higher education institutions with installed 

turbines and/or wind energy curriculum. Nebraska community 

colleges and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) allow 

credits for electrical and engineering courses at the community 

college level to transfer to UNL. The following institutions 

provide wind energy education in the state:

• UNL Wind Applications Center, which includes a 

Skystream installed at Rogers Research Farm in August 

2008 and anemometers installed at various locations

• Southeast Community College in Lincoln, which 

includes a Skystream installed in April 2011 (Nebraska 

facilitator McGuire assisted with the planning and 

installation)

• Central Community College in Hastings, which includes 

a Skystream installed on campus

• Northeast Community College in Norfolk, which offers a wind technician training course

• Western Nebraska Community College, which includes wind energy in courses.

Figure 16. A billboard displays Elkhorn Valley’s school pride (green is a school color). Elkhorn Valley 

installed its turbine in 2008. Photo from Dan McGuire, NREL/PIX 17332

WAC

University of Nebraska – Lincoln 

(UNL)

http://engineering.unl.edu/academicun

its/electricalengineering/outreach/wind

forschools/index.shtml

WAC Director

Jerry L. Hudgins

Chair, Department of Electrical 

Engineering

Nebraska Center for Energy Science 

Research

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Lincoln, NE 68588-0511

402-472-3771

hudgins@engr.unl.edu

State Facilitator

Dan McGuire

4540 Oakridge Circle

Lincoln, NE 68516-1482

402-489-1346

McGuireConsultng@aol.com

Under contract: Round 1. The UNL 

WAC will not receive any DOE 

funding in 2012.

Number of installations: 18
55

Table 16. Nebraska Installations Summary

Install Date Location

December 2008 Elkhorn Valley School, Tilden

December 2008 Cedar Rapids Public School, Cedar Rapids

January 2009 Hayes Center Public School, Hayes Center

February 2009 Diller-Odell Public School, Odell

April 2010 Bloomfield Community Schools, Bloomfield

May 2010 Norris Public Schools, Firth

July 2010 Loup City Public Schools, Loup City

November 2010 Bancroft-Rosalie Public Schools, Bancroft

October 2010 Papillion-LaVista Public Schools, Papillion

March 2011 Logan View Public Schools, Hooper

April 2010 West Point Public Schools, West Point

September 2011 West Holt Public Schools, Atkinson

May 2011 Pleasanton Public Schools, Pleasanton

November 2010 Mullen Public Schools, Mullen

September 2011 Hyannis Public Schools, Hyannis

April 2011 Crawford Public Schools, Crawford

June 2011 Garden County Public Schools, Oshkosh

June 2011 Creighton Public Schools, Creighton

4.7.1 Nebraska WAC Activities

Examples of Nebraska WAC activities include the following:

• The WAC team has taught 75 undergraduates and 16 graduate students in the wind energy 

class, and more than a dozen undergraduates and more than five graduate students were 

involved with installations. Hundreds of high school students were exposed to wind energy 

topics in their schools or summer programs. More than 10 graduate students have graduated 

or are currently working on wind energy research projects.

• In June 2009, the WAC at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln co-hosted an international 

symposium on power electronics and machines in wind applications. Approximately 88 

attendees from eight countries heard speakers from GE, Vestas/Aalborg University, North 

Wind, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute, 

Convention of National Societies of Electrical Engineers of Europe, the University of 

Wisconsin, and Oregon State University. 
56

Figure 17. Nebraska Wind for Schools project locations
57

4.7.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

Examples of Nebraska curricula and teacher-training activities include the following:

• In February 2012, the Nebraska WAC director and associate director provided a training 

workshop at UNL for wind energy instructors at community colleges and trade associations. 

Attendees included four from Southeast Community College, two from Northeast 

Community College, four from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in

Omaha and Lincoln, and one from The Nebraska Renewable Energy Systems Co.

• The Nebraska Wind for Schools team hosted an educators' workshop in Kearney in March 

2011. Facilitator McGuire mailed invitations that included NEED Project and WindWise 

packets to 23 Nebraska partner schools. Seventeen educators from 11 of the partner schools 

attended. A NEED representative led the first day of activities, including Wind for Schools

101 and NEED 101, science of energy, using Wind for Schools data acquisition, hands-on 

wind activities (making anemometers, testing wind speed, electricity basics, blade testing and 

blade design), interdisciplinary wind energy activities, and kit evaluations. 

4.7.3 Funding Update

• The USDA awarded Nebraska $147,800 to start or expand rural businesses and to fund 

employment-related education programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act. 

• State Facilitator McGuire has worked closely with the Nebraska Attorney General’s office to 

obtain grant funds from the Supplemental Environmental Program for a number of Wind for 

Schools partners,

9

• Another source of Nebraska project funding has been Nebraska Public Power District 

(NPPD). NPPD provided funding for Elkhorn Valley School ($3,000), Cedar Rapids Public 

School ($1,500), Hayes Center Public School ($1,500), Diller-Odell Public School ($1,500), 

Bancroft-Rosalie Public Schools ($1,500), Bloomfield Community Schools ($3,000), Loup 

City Public School ($3,000), Norris Public Schools ($1,500), Crawford Public Schools 

($3,000), Mullen Public Schools ($1,500), and Creighton Public Schools ($3,000). In the 

future, NPPD will not provide similar grants but will instead invest in a new wind energy

educational center in Norfolk that will include school tours.

obtaining $185,162 for 12 schools. Key benefits of the Supplemental 

Environmental Program grant funding are the streamlined process and the fact that schools 

were able to apply for the full project cost. However, near the end of 2010, officials informed 

the Nebraska Wind for Schools team that the program had provided all the grant funds it had 

allocated for the Wind for Schools project, so the team will revert to its previous strategy of 

helping interested new schools apply for USDA grants, Nebraska Energy Office grants, and 

other sources of grant funding. The Nebraska media covered the Supplemental 

Environmental Program grants and the related announcements, and the Wind for Schools 

project has received statewide coverage during the past 3 years as a result of the assertive 

outreach.

 9 Further information about this funding is available on the Wind Powering America website at 

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/filter_detail.asp?itemid=3522
58

• The WAC at UNL will not receive any DOE funding in 2012. The Nebraska Energy Office

has only $25,000 available ($5,000 per school), so additional sources of project funding must 

be found. 

• The current annual cost of the Wind for Schools operation in Nebraska is $60,000 per year, 

exclusive of the rural school project costs (which are funded through a variety of school, 

state, federal, private, and cost-shared sources detailed above). A new model under 

consideration involves forming a 501(c)(3) corporation focused on Nebraska wind education. 

Its role will be to transform the Nebraska Wind for Schools programs to a state-based publicprivate collaboration while maintaining its non-funding relationship with the existing Wind 

for Schools project and the American Wind Energy Association’s education program. UNL 

will contribute $10,000 as a cost-sharing contribution. 

• If successful, the Nebraska program will expand the current 24 rural school projects by three 

to five schools per year, educating children (and their communities) in K-12 rural schools 

and 100-200 college students by 2016.

4.7.4 Testimonials

“I would just like to expose my kids to all the possible alternative energies that are out there, and 

what better way than this? It’s just too good of a project to turn down.” 

Amy Malander, superintendent, Cedar Rapids, Nebraska

“These projects will get people back on the job now and will set the stage for growth by educating 

future generations.” 

Ben Nelson, Nebraska Senator (announcing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding that 

included three Wind for Schools projects)

“It’s a new job market opportunity for some of our vocational kids.” 

Dave Owen, principal, Burwell Schools, Nebraska
59

4.8 North Carolina (Round 2)

The North Carolina Wind for Schools project team applied for 

several large grants after receiving DOE funding in 2010 and, 

while waiting for the funding, the team members concentrated 

on siting, identifying host schools, and talking to teachers. After 

the grants were awarded in 2011, the team had to move quickly 

because they had a deadline of 6 months in which to spend the 

money. 

The short timeline resulted in limited time for the planning, 

zoning, and construction process for the nine planned school

turbines. To complete all installations prior to December 2011, 

the group contracted them to Sundance Energy Systems, a local 

company with renewable energy project experience. All nine 

projects were installed10

The WAC is recruiting schools for 2012 turbine installations

and has received four applications to date. 

within a short timeframe at the end of 

2011.

Table 17. North Carolina Installations Summary

Install 

Date

Location Project Details

December 

2011

Watauga High School, 

Boone

- Skystream 3.7 turbine on a 45-foot tower

- Funded by the North Carolina Green Business Fund Grant and 

GEAR UP program

- Installed by Sundance Power Systems with assistance from the 

ASU WAC and host school students

2011 North Wilkes Middle 

School, North 

Wilkesboro

- Skystream 3.7 turbine on a 30-foot tower

- Funded by the North Carolina Green Business Fund Grant and 

GEAR UP program

- Installed by Sundance Power Systems with assistance from the 

ASU WAC and host school students

2011 Alleghany High School, 

Sparta

- Skystream 3.7 turbine on a 30-foot tower

- Blue Ridge Electric Co-op donated approximately $500 to cover 

metering and permit costs 

- The Alleghany School Board offered $1,500 toward the project

- Additional funding provided by the North Carolina Green 

Business Fund Grant and GEAR UP program

- Installed by Sundance Power Systems with assistance from the 

ASU WAC and host school students

 10 More information about the nine installations is available on the Wind Powering America website at 

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/filter_detail.asp?itemid=3454

WAC

Appalachian State University

www.wind.appstate.edu

WAC Director

Dennis Scanlin

Appropriate Technology Program

Department of Technology

Appalachian State University

Boone, NC 28608

828-262-6361

scanlindm@appstate.edu

State Facilitator

Russell Blevins, USDA Mountain 

Valleys Resource Conservation and 

Development Council

4388 Hwy 25-70, Suite 3

Marshall, NC 28753

828-649-3313 ext 5

russell.blevins@nc.usda.gov

www.mountainvalleysrcd.org

Under contract: Round 2, funded in 

2010

Number of installations: 9
60

Install 

Date

Location Project Details

2011 Avery County High 

School, Newland

- Skystream 3.7 turbine on a 45-foot tower

- Funded by the North Carolina Green Business Fund Grant and 

GEAR UP program

- Installed by Sundance Power Systems with assistance from the 

ASU WAC and host school students

2011 First Flight Middle 

School, Kill Devil Hills

- Skystream 3.7 turbine

- Funded as part of a Rural Center for Economics grant and a 

partnership among the ASU WAC, Baker Renewables, and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

- The ASU WAC provided technical assistance via 

teleconferences and mapping software during the preliminary site 

assessment

- The installation was contracted to Baker Renewables and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

2011 Cape Hatteras 

Secondary School of 

Coastal Studies, 

Buxton

- Skystream 3.7 turbine

- Funded as part of a Rural Center for Economics grant and a 

partnership among the ASU WAC, Baker Renewables, and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

- The ASU WAC provided technical assistance via 

teleconferences and mapping software during the preliminary site 

assessment

- The installation was contracted to Baker Renewables and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

2011 JP Knapp High School, 

Currituck

- Skystream 3.7 turbine 

- Funded as part of a Rural Center for Economics grant and a 

partnership among the ASU WAC, Baker Renewables, and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

- The ASU WAC provided technical assistance via 

teleconferences and mapping software during the preliminary site 

assessment

- The installation was contracted to Baker Renewables and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

2011 College of Albemarle -

Dare Campus, Manteo

- Windspire turbine

- Funded as part of a Rural Center for Economics grant and a 

partnership among the ASU WAC, Baker Renewables, and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

- The ASU WAC provided technical assistance via 

teleconferences and mapping software during the preliminary site 

assessment

- The installation was contracted to Baker Renewables and the 

Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council

2011 College of Albemarle -

Edenton Campus, 

Edenton

- Bergey XL hybrid system installed as part of a workshop hosted 

by the ASU WAC staff

- In October 2011, a 20-meter met tower was also installed here 

as part of a wind resource assessment workshop that was 

conducted by the ASU WAC staff
61

Figure 18. North Carolina Wind for Schools project locations

4.8.1 North Carolina WAC Activities

Examples of North Carolina WAC activities include the following:

• As of spring 2012, 250 Appalachian students (200 undergraduates and 50 graduate students) 

are studying renewable energy.

• Approximately 100 students per year are involved in the WAC's Wind for Schools projects. 

All students receive hands-on experience from these projects.

• Four graduates are currently working in the wind industry, while several others work for 

renewable energy companies involved with small wind/PV/micro-hydro projects.
62

Figure 19. North Carolina school locations with >10-mph average annual wind speed @ 30 meters 

(based on AWS Truepower’s North Carolina wind resource map)

The North Carolina WAC is staffed by six graduate students. In addition to Wind for Schools 

activities, the group:

• Participates in the North Carolina Wind Working Group

• Offers community outreach, education, and consultation (providing wind mapping service 

and workshops open to the public)

• Administers an anemometer loan program

• Manages the Beech Mountain Small Wind Turbine Research & Demonstration Facility in 

western North Carolina. The group recently installed three new turbines and two met towers 

at the site and also purchased a new Campbell Scientific datalogger and new transducers and 

sensors for the work 

• Provides education at the university level (currently two undergraduate wind and hydro 

technology classes and one graduate wind and hydro class)

• Conducts outreach, including a recent appearance by WAC members on a public radio 

program discussing Wind for Schools (www.oursoutherncommunity.org/showarchives.htm)

• Prepares a project description document to aid the local champion teacher in pitching the idea 

to others. This document includes specifics on the Skystream turbine, a tentative price 

breakdown, a satellite photo of the proposed installation area, and photo simulations of the 

turbine in its proposed location. This serves as a tool to promote local acceptance for the 

project and address concerns. 
63

Figure 20. North Carolina WAC research assistant Christopher Guttenberg learns about the KidWind 

model kit. Photo from Appalachian State University, NREL/PIX 18604

4.8.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

Examples of North Carolina curricula and teacher-training activities include the following:

• WAC members participated in a regional technology education program, distributed NEED

Project and other wind curriculum materials, and demonstrated KidWind Project kits.

• The group maintains www.wind.appstate.edu as an information center for teachers and 

administrators interested in the program. WAC staff members have updated the site to 

include a list of frequently asked Wind for Schools questions that addresses curriculum 

integration, how the installations are funded, and specifics on the Skystream model. They’ve 

also added links to curriculum development resources.

• The WAC sends e-mails to North Carolina science and technology education contacts and to 

the principals included in its “windy schools” database. Since fall 2010, the group has offered 

informational webinars to interested teachers and administrators. The group also administers 

a listserv.

• On May 14, 2011, the WAC sponsored a wind workshop for teachers. NEED Project staff led 

the workshop, which was attended by 27 teachers from across the state. Most of the teachers 

were from schools with average annual wind speeds of 10 mph or higher at 30 meters. Also, 

most of the participating teachers had followed up on a letter of intent and an application 

signed by the principal of the school and superintendent of the county school system. 

• Appalachian graduate students working in the WAC office participated in several other windrelated educational activities, including a half-day Earth Day workshop in Caldwell County 

for a group of 24 students selected for their academic excellence and strong interest in 

engineering, math, and science. The group also set up displays at two regional technology 

education events: a technology educational student organization and conference of 

technology educators. More than 100 people attended each of these events. The group 

distributed Wind for Schools project literature and wind energy curriculum materials and 

demonstrated KidWind Project kits.
64

Figure 21. North Carolina Wind for Schools project logo

• The ASU WAC facilitated a 3-hour Catawba County Green Commission Wind Energy 

workshop in November 2011. Forty honors students from the western North Carolina area 

attended and learned about wind energy basics. Activities included presentations, met tower 

instrument wiring, turbine technology and components, and a KidWind kit introduction. 

• Modeled after the KidWind Challenge, WAC staff member Chris Guttenberg is leading a 

pilot group of North Carolina Technology teachers to develop and conduct wind energy 

competition events for potential long-term adoption by the North Carolina Technology 

Student Association. 

4.8.3 Funding Update

• The group secured a commitment from Gearup and Upward Bound for $10,000 to support 

projects in Alleghany and Avery Counties.

• A North Carolina Green Business Fund Grant resulted in $100,000 to fund four projects in 

the mountain region.

• The Albermarle Resource Conservation & Development Council included the Wind for 

Schools project in a grant it submitted to the North Carolina Rural Center to support coastal 

projects. A $200,000 grant award was recently announced pending appropriation of funding 

from the state general assembly.

• Sudie Hargis, a Coast Guard member who worked with the Alaska Wind for Schools project, 

is now working with the North Carolina WAC. Personnel at Base Fort Macon in Atlantic 

Beach are planning to install a Skystream 600. They want to provide most of the funding for 

the project and site the turbine on their property but also allow Carteret County Public 

Schools to use the turbine as a learning aid and post the data on the school's website.

• Invenergy has promised $3,000 to support a project in Currituck, Beaufort, or Tyrell 

Counties.
65

• The WAC team will engage in fundraising efforts with the Global Institute for Sustainable 

Technologies director and the Reading, Riding, and Retrofit: Schools Leading the Way to 

Sustainability director for a project in Buncombe County.

• Mountain Valleys RC&D has applied for grants to fund turbine installations in 2012. During 

the first quarter, the team applied for an $85,000 Wells Fargo grant and a $10,000

Appalachian Regional Commission grant. 

• Also during the first quarter of 2012, WAC staff member and Appropriate Technology 

graduate student Sebastian Brundage applied for a $5,000 ASU GEAR UP grant. GEAP UP 

provided funding for several of the 2011 turbine installations. The recent grant was written to 

fund the relocation of the Skystream turbine installed at Brushy Creek Middle School in 

Buncombe County. The turbine was installed at a poor wind site and school personnel

requested that it be relocated. The WAC is trying to relocate the turbine to Glade Creek 

Elementary School in Alleghany County.
66

4.9 Pennsylvania (Round 2)

In January 2011, the Pennsylvania team released its first 

request for applications from schools. The application period 

ended in March with a pool of 11 applicant schools from across 

the state (see map below). Seventy students in WAC Director 

Susan Stewart’s junior-level wind and hydropower course at 

Penn State conducted the feasibility studies.

Figure 22. Locations of 2011 Pennsylvania Wind for Schools 

applicants

These reports will be provided to each school. The team used 

results of the feasibility studies to rate each school on the 

expected energy production for the site, the ease of permitting, 

and on the funding probability for the projects. The resulting 

ratings were used to determine the top three schools from this 

candidate pool that the WAC will work with to raise funding 

for a turbine and customize wind energy curricula. The selected 

schools were Hazelton Area High School, Greater Johnstown 

Career & Technology Center, and Northwestern High School. 

The WAC will also work with the Mount Nittany Elementary 

School, continuing work that began before DOE funding.

4.9.1 Pennsylvania WAC Activities 

Examples of Pennsylvania WAC activities include the following:

• Course proposals for three new graduate-level wind energy engineering courses were drafted as 

part of a separate DOE-funded wind workforce development effort. This course series will lead 

to a graduate certificate in wind energy engineering, beginning in fall 2012. This sequence of 

courses will also constitute an option in Penn State’s online Intercollege Professional Master’s 

degree program in Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems. 

• As of November 2011, the Pennsylvania WAC team reported that 125 students were enrolled in 

wind energy courses, 70 university students were involved in the feasibility study for Wind for 

Schools projects in the state, two students had summer internships that offered hands-on

experience with turbine installations, and five students landed jobs in the wind industry. 

WAC

Penn State

www.wind.psu.edu/wfs/

WAC Director

Susan Stewart

Aerospace Engineering & 

Architectural Engineering

Pennsylvania State University

230B Hammond Building

University Park, PA 16802

814-933-7129

sstewart@psu.edu

State Facilitator

Leah Bug

Center for Science and the Schools

Pennsylvania State University

150A Chambers

University Park, PA 16802

814-865-8397

leahbug@psu.edu

Staff

Dina Taucher, Wind Senator

Under contract: Round 2, December 

2010

Number of installations: 1
67

Figure 23. Pennsylvania Wind for Schools project locations

• Prior to the DOE contract, the group worked with Mt. Nittany Elementary School, a local school 

in State College, to raise funds for a turbine at the site. The school recently received a Lowe’s 

Education Toolbox grant for $5,000 and is expecting $5,000 from Citizen Power. The school 

district agreed to fund “everything from the ground down.” One of the faculty members involved

with this process is also building turbines with his students at the Park Forest Middle School. 

• Aerospace engineering faculty member Professor Schmitz taught a graduate course on wind farm 

modeling in fall 2012. This course will transition into one of three online wind energy courses 

leading to a graduate certificate in wind energy engineering beginning in fall 2012. This 

sequence of courses will also constitute an option in Penn State’s online Intercollege 

Professional Master’s degree program in Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems, which is 

also scheduled to kick off in the fall.

• During the spring 2011 semester, 70 students in EGEE 438: Wind & Hydropower conducted 

wind turbine feasibility studies for the 11 applicant schools previously mentioned and provided 

reports to each school. The project team also rated the applications for the educational plans 

presented. The results of the feasibility studies will lead to ratings for each school on the 

expected energy production for the site, the ease of permitting, and the funding probability. The 

resulting ratings determined the three schools that the WAC will work with to raise funding for a 

turbine.

• In addition to the 70 students enrolled in Stewart’s course in spring 2011, 30 undergrad and 

graduate students also enrolled in an aerospace engineering course focused on the analysis and 

modeling of wind turbine aerodynamics using available NREL tools and codes developed in 

student projects. 
68

• On February 8-9, 2011, Penn State hosted the third Windustry Community Wind across America 

conference. The Pennsylvania Wind for Schools project, KidWind, and Southwest Windpower 

were represented in the exhibition. One conference session focused on education and community 

engagement.

4.9.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

Examples of Pennsylvania curricula and teacher-training activities include the following:

• In July 2011, a Skystream turbine was installed on the Penn State campus to support a hybrid 

renewable energy residence laboratory. The turbine will introduce host school teachers and 

administrators to the system and how the resulting data can be used in their classrooms. In 

September, training was also provided on the PI software system, which will integrate the data 

from the various renewable energy systems at this research facility.

• The WAC hosted its first Saturday Science Workshop in March 2011 for selected host schools.

4.9.3 Funding Update

• Pennsylvania is a deregulated utility market, and the group was encouraged to apply for $25,000 

from one of the Sustainable Energy Funds that resulted from deregulation in the late ‘90s. 

Funding was received, and this will partially support approximately five installations in 

Allegheny Power territory by providing $5,000 each. The group hopes to receive similar support 

from the other utility regions in the state.

• The WAC submitted funding requests to the TE Connectivity Foundation and the Pennsylvania 

Space Grant Consortium, and both requests were granted. The TE Foundation is providing 

$20,000 in support of Wind for Schools installations and activities in the central Pennsylvania 

region. The Pennsylvania Space Grant provided $6,281 to support a teacher-training event in 

October 2011 to train teachers from the selected host schools and the remaining applicant 

schools in the KidWind Project curricula, led by Wind Senator Taucher.

• The WAC is teaming up with North Carolina and Virginia to pursue funding from the 

Appalachian Regional Commission for turbine installations in these states.

• The West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund provided a $5,000 grant to the Mount Nittany 

Elementary School.

• The team has contacted Johnson Controls about supporting a wind turbine project as part of the

company’s Guaranteed Energy Service Contracts.
69

4.10 South Dakota (Round 1)

South Dakota has installed 12 turbines. Planned projects at Elk 

Mountains School in Dewey and Sturgis School District in Sturgis 

are on hold due to lack of funding.

Figure 24. Sanborn Central School in Forestburg was the first South 

Dakota school to install a Wind for Schools project turbine. Photo 

from East River Electric Power Cooperative, NREL/PIX 16030

Table 18. South Dakota Installations Summary

Install Date Location Project Details

2011 Brookings School 

District, Brookings

- Air-X wind turbine

2011 Lake Andes School 

District, Lake Andes

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower

- D & Z Energy Products installed the turbine under 

WAC supervision

- Lake Andes School District funded the installation

June 2010 Yankton School 

District, Yankton

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower 

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of D & Z Energy 

Products, Bon Homme Yankton Electric, and East River 

Energy Cooperative

- Funding sources: Utility contribution ($5,000), school 

contribution ($10,000)

2010 Wessington Springs 

School District, 

Wessington Springs

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower

- Students from Mitchell Technical School installed the 

turbine, supervised by the WAC director, with support 

from Miller City Electric Department

- Wessington Springs School District and Heartland 

Power Consumer District funded the installation

WAC

South Dakota State University 

(SDSU)

http://wac.sdwind.org

WAC Director

Mike Twedt

Mechanical Engineering 

Department

South Dakota State University

Box 2219, CEH 235

Brookings, SD 57007

605-688-4303

michael.twedt@sdstate.edu

State Facilitator

Steve Wegman

South Dakota Wind Energy 

Association

125 S. Madison

Pierre, SD 57501

605-224-1715

wind@pie.midco.net

Under contract: Round 1

Number of installations: 12
70

Install Date Location Project Details

2010 Miller School District, 

Miller

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower

- Students from Mitchell Technical School installed the 

turbine, supervised by the WAC director, with support 

from Miller City Electric Department

- Miller School District and BP Wind funded the 

installation 

November 2009 Faith School District, 

Faith

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower 

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of GenPro and Missouri 

River Energy Services

- Funding sources: Industry sponsor grant ($3,500), 

alumni grant ($2,800), utility contribution ($3,672), 

school contribution ($5,229)

November 2009 Memorial Middle 

School, Sioux Falls

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower 

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of Green Energy 

Products LLC and Xcel Energy

- Funding sources: NREL grant ($3,500), utility 

contribution ($7,500), school contribution ($4,850)

October 2009 Selby School District, 

Selby

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of Green Energy 

Products LLC and Montana-Dakota Utilities

- Funding sources: Industry sponsor grant ($3,300), 

utility contribution ($3,500), school contribution ($5,212)

September 2009 Dakota Valley School 

District, North Sioux 

City

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower 

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of Green Energy 

Products LLC, Union County Electric Cooperative, and 

East River Energy Cooperative

- Funding source: School contribution ($4,026)

June 2009 Elkton School District, 

Elkton

- Skystream on a 60-foot monopole tower

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with support from Green Energy 

Products LLC

- Funding sources: Utility contribution ($3,000), school 

contribution: $7,750

January 2009 Douglas School 

District, Box Elder

- Skystream on a 60-foot monopole tower 

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with support from GenPro and Black Hills 

Power

- Funding sources: Industry sponsor grant ($3,500), 

utility contribution ($3,300), school contribution 

($11,274)

May 2008 Sanborn Central 

School District, 

Forestburg

- Skystream on a 45-foot monopole tower

- WAC students installed the turbine, supervised by the 

WAC director, with the support of Green Energy 

Products LLC and East River Energy Cooperative, 

which supplied linemen and a pole truck for the 

installation

- Funding sources: Industry sponsor grant ($3,500), 

utility contribution ($5,720), school contribution ($4,027)
71

Figure 25. South Dakota Wind for Schools project locations

4.10.1 South Dakota WAC Activities

• As of December 2011, 23 university students have attended renewable energy classes, 25 

students were involved in the WAC's Wind for Schools projects, and 12 students have graduated 

with some hands-on wind experience from these projects.

• The 2010 Youth Engineering Activities camp was a huge success for the South Dakota WAC as 

students discovered wind energy. Students learned through an interactive presentation with a 

finale involving their own blade designs. Students tested their best blade designs for performance 

and durability in a simulated environment.

• The WAC installed a 34-meter NRG anemometer tower in June 2010. Contributors were Sioux 

Valley Energy, Mitchell Technical Institute, SDSU’s mechanical engineering department, and 

the SDSU Sheep Unit (donating a pasture for the tower installation). Sioux Valley Energy Co-op 

donated the time of two linesmen and a derrick truck.
72

• State Facilitator Wegman has made numerous presentations on Wind for Schools in South 

Dakota to groups such as the South Dakota Wind Energy Association, Corson County 

Landowner Association, Cheyenne Sioux Tribe, Edmunds County Commissioners, and the 

Pierre Central Planning District. 

• WAC students also participated in a special project focused on conducting a review of data 

communications options for use in the program.

4.10.2 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

• In April 2010, BP Energy sponsored a NEED/KidWind workshop in Miller with 

representatives from state communities interested in wind. NEED Project wind kits were 

made available to schools for use in classroom sessions focused on wind energy.

• In June 2009, Mitchell Technical Institute hosted a NEED Project education workshop for 

representatives from all the project affiliates, Lake Area Technical, and the WAC. More than 

40 South Dakota Wind for Schools teachers attended.

• It should be noted that school administrators, teachers, and students find educational 

materials to be the most valuable component of the Wind for Schools program but are 

hesitant about spending the time to adapt curriculum resources from KidWind, NEED, 4H, or 

others to their classrooms because they may not exactly align with required topics. The WAC 

team has found that workshops and supplemental educational snippets provide high value to 

the students with minimal effort to the teachers. 

4.10.3 Funding Update

Finding project funding is increasingly difficult. Wegman has conducted discussions with Black 

Hills Power and Light, BP Wind, Acciona, ITC, NextEra, the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

and others regarding funding part of the expansion of the Wind for Schools project in South 

Dakota.

Wind energy developers FPL Energy, Babcock & Brown, and Iberdrola Renewables have each 

pledged $10,000 to help support the South Dakota Wind for Schools project. The funds will be 

used to defray construction expenses associated with installing the turbines. FPL Energy is the 

developer of South Dakota's first utility-scale wind farm near Highmore. Babcock & Brown is 

the developer of the Wessington Springs Wind Farm. Iberdrola Renewables is the developer of 

the MinnDakota Wind Farm and the Buffalo Ridge I Wind Farm, both in Brookings County.

4.10.4 Testimonials

“I believe the Wind for Schools Project provides an excellent opportunity for our students and 

staff to study renewable energy. Having a wind turbine on our campus provides our staff and 

students an opportunity to study firsthand what renewable energy can do for this country.” 

Loren Scheer, superintendent, Douglas School District, South Dakota

“This Wind for Schools Project is such a great opportunity for students at Douglas. As the wind 

industry expands, particularly in South Dakota, we realize how important it is to equip students 

with an understanding of wind energy. In a few years these students will be the ones installing 
73

and maintaining wind turbines. I hope this project is the beginning of an exciting time for 

Douglas.” 

Dusty Johnson, chairman, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission

“The Wind for Schools Project will give the students and teachers at Douglas a great hands-on 

learning experience in the growing field of wind energy. They will play a vital role in bringing 

renewable energy to a grassroots level in Box Elder. This is a project and energy source both the 

school and community can embrace.” 

Don Martinez, energy services engineer, Black Hills Power, South Dakota

“The students notice the wind turbine when they come in. They talk specifically about how 

windy it is, and they’ve asked to see the output on the windier days.” 

Tracy Moody, science teacher, Sanborn Central School District, South Dakota

“I strongly support continued local, state, and federal cooperation in putting this nation’s wind 

energy resources to work for all Americans. The Wind for Schools program is an important step 

in achieving this goal, and I thank you for your continued administration of this program.” 

South Dakota Senator John Thune
74

4.11 Virginia (Round 2)

The Virginia WAC developed a process for selecting host 

schools; beginning in March 2011, schools must submit a simple 

proposal that includes information on campus location, intended 

use of the wind turbine in the classroom, school support, 

community awareness, and more.

The Virginia WAC received nine applications for host schools 

for the 2011 school year and completed two installations (see 

Table 19 below). Planned 2012 installations include Thomas 

Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg and Central High 

School in Woodstock.

Figure 26. Northumberland Middle/High School installed the first 

Wind for Schools project in Virginia in February 2011. Photo from 

Remy Luerssen, James Madison University, NREL/PIX 18543

Table 19. Virginia Installations Summary

Location Install 

Date

Project Details

Henley Middle 

School, Crozet

December 

2011

- The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy

funded a wind and solar project at the school in 2010

- The WAC team assisted with siting and finding an installer

- The school presented to the Board of Supervisors and the 

zoning board of Albemarle County and were successful at 

gaining a variance to the current 35-foot height restriction

WAC

Virginia Center for Wind Energy 

(VCWE) at James Madison University 

(JMU) 

aeer.cisat.jmu.edu/wfs.html

WAC Director

Jonathan Miles

Department of Integrated Science and 

Technology

James Madison University

701 Carrier Drive, MSC 4201

Harrisonburg, VA 22807

540-568-3044

milesjj@jmu.edu

State Facilitator

Remy Luerssen

Department of Integrated Science and 

Technology

James Madison University

1401 Technology Drive, MSC 4905

Harrisonburg, VA 22807

540-568-8768

luerssrm@jmu.edu

Staff

Kenny Howell, Monica Pangle, Ken 

Newbold

Under contract: Round 2

Number of installations: 2
75

Location Install 

Date

Project Details

Northumberland 

Middle/High 

School, 

Heathsville

February 

2011

- In November 2009, the school applied for a $20,000 

stimulus grant from the Virginia Department of Mines, 

Minerals, and Energy to fund the turbine project. The grant 

funding originated from the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act. Almost a year after submitting the grant 

application, funding was approved, allowing for construction 

to begin

- A success story about this installation is posted on the 

Wind Powering America website at 

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/filter_detail.asp?itemid=3042

Figure 27. Virginia Wind for Schools project locations

4.11.1 Affiliates

The WAC identified five schools in Virginia with turbines. Of these, Spotsylvania Career and 

Technical Center and Gereau Center have agreed to become affiliates, and the team is acquiring 

their turbine information to connect them to INL’s database. Virginia Beach Public Schools 

(which has four Skystreams at the bus maintenance building) and William Fleming High School 

in Roanoke (which has four Skystreams to power stadium lights) have expressed interest but 

have not officially signed on as affiliates. A fifth school appears to be uninterested.

In addition, many military bases around the state are interested in installing turbines to help meet 

renewable portfolio standards goals. On Earth Day 2011, Ft. Story in Virginia Beach installed 

three SkyStreams, and the WAC contacted them to discuss the possibility of partnering with a 
76

local school to use the installation as an educational project for that school. WAC members are 

also working with the Coast Guard, planning a Wind for Schools installation at the base in Cape 

Charles. They have engaged a local middle and high school that are interested in partnering on 

the project and using it as an educational tool in their classrooms. They are planning to install a 

Bergey 10-kW system and are in the process of collecting bids. Finally, the WAC contacted 

Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia to discuss linking a SkyStream

installation to local schools. A summer undergraduate intern has been working on these projects

and is incorporating these interactions with the military projects into his senior thesis project.

4.11.2 Virginia WAC Activities

Recent WAC activities include the following:

• In 2011, two James Madison University (JMU) student teams (total of five students) worked

on school projects through the WAC. In addition, one team of students from the University 

of Virginia is working with a school (total of four students). The WAC worked with a student 

from JMU’s education department to assist with curricula. Presentations were made about the 

Wind for Schools project and the opportunities for pre-service educators to become involved 

in education classes at JMU. 

• JMU currently offers courses that include wind energy at all four undergraduate levels and in 

graduate courses. Twenty-four students enrolled in the Instrumentation and Measurement in 

Energy course during the fall semester, which included several wind lab modules. Thirty-one 

students are enrolled in Sustainable Energy Development during the spring semester, which 

includes a 5-week wind module plus a wind energy term project.

• There is an effort underway at JMU to develop a minor that addresses wind energy, 

technologies, policy, and industry in a holistic fashion with several departments and 

programs served. Also, the JMU Small Wind Training and Testing Facility should be 

completed and operating during 2012.

• The WAC also has five other JMU students working on wind-related senior thesis projects on 

topics such as SODAR wind data analysis, siting a turbine at Tangier Island, and planning a 

small wind testing and training facility at JMU. 

• A student in the joint master’s program with the University of Malta did a dissertation on the 

needs of the industry in a small wind testing facility. 

• In total, with summer student interns, student volunteers, and student project work, the WAC 

engaged 19 students in education, geographic science, and engineering and sustainable 

environmental resource management. 

• JMU students installed several anemometers in 2011. The WAC has an inventory of old 20-

meter systems and expects delivery of two 34-meter systems. The university approved the 

loan agreement with language outlining safety plans and installation inspection by a building 

inspector.

• In 2011, the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council nominated the Virginia Wind for 

Schools team for an award in the Innovation in K-12 Education category.
77

4.11.3 Curricula and Teacher-Training Activities

• The WAC is planning a KidWind Challenge in 2012 at the Science Museum of Virginia in 

Richmond. The event will follow a daylong Wind for Schools Summit in which all schools in 

the networks will come together to share successes and discuss hurdles. The goal is for 20 

school teams to compete in the high school or middle school division. A JMU student who is 

working on her master’s degree in education is leading the planning effort. She is also 

working with another JMU student who volunteered at the KidWind Challenge at the 

WINDPOWER Conference in Anaheim to learn more about the event. 

• The WAC engaged informal science institutions around the state to help educate students and 

the public about wind energy and to serve as possible hosts for regional teacher training 

workshops. The group is currently working with the Science Museum of Virginia (which has 

a Bergey XL.1 turbine), the Science Museum of Western Virginia, Nauticus, and the Virginia 

Aquarium. The WAC will seek funding to create a teacher-training network using these 

museum partners, with the goal of training an educator from each institution as a NEED 

facilitator and a Wind Senator.

• The WAC hosted a NEED teacher training in June 2010 in coordination with the state wind 

symposium and hosted a NEED workshop for Wind for Schools teachers in summer 2011. 

Other trainings will be offered at schools throughout the state.

4.11.4 Funding Update

• The VCWE receives funding to support wind-related efforts such as community outreach and 

siting evaluations (including one at Tangier Island near a prospective host school). In 

addition, the funding received to manage small wind projects through the state rebate and 

grant programs helps with projects at the two host schools this year. The WAC continues to 

conduct outreach as requested, but these efforts are constrained by funding limitations.

• The Virginia state energy office provided full funding for two schools to install Skystreams.

Woodstock applied for a $50,000 grant from the county and was not successful, so the WAC 

team is working on creative fundraising ideas and green certificates. Harrisonburg is 

investigating climate education funding from the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (NASA). 

The WAC team convinced the state energy office to allot $10,000 for the two schools 

struggling with funding. The group also received funds for wind-related projects from the 

25x’25 initiative and may make these available to these schools to help expedite the turbine 

installations. Finally, JMU education department faculty members are working on a National 

Science Foundation proposal to determine whether a virtual simulation lesson would have 

potential for rural students in high school science courses. In the future, the WAC team will 

pursue funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission in partnership with North 

Carolina and Pennsylvania..
78

5 Appendix I: Wind for Schools Partner Organizations and 

Contacts

U.S. Department of Energy

Jonathan Bartlett

Wind Power Program

202-586-7334

jonathan.bartlett@ee.doe.gov

www.windpoweringamerica.gov

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Charles Newcomb

Wind Powering America

303-384-7020

charles.newcomb@nrel.gov

www.windpoweringamerica.gov

Idaho National Laboratory

Mark McKay

208-526-0539

mark.mckay@inl.gov

http://wind-for-schools.caesenergy.org/wind-for-schools/Wind_For_Schools.html

The National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project

Mary Spruill

703-257-1117

mspruill@need.org

Southwest Windpower

www.need.org 

Ross Taylor

928-779-9463

ross.taylor@windenergy.com

www.windenergy.com

The KidWind Project

Michael Arquin

651-917-0079

michael@kidwind.org

www.kidwind.org/

www.windwiseeducation.org/
79

WindWise

Christine Denny

Pandion Systems, Inc. 

352-372-4747 x7020

Earth Turbines (met towers)

CDenny@pandionsystems.com

Douglas S. Goldsmith

802-872-9600 ext. 121

dgoldsmith@earthturbines.com

www.earthturbines.com