College reduces size, changes location of proposed energy turbine
Michael Gross, communications director for Cape Cod Community College, admits he was surprised when the Federal Aviation Administration had concerns about the original campus location of a proposed wind turbine.
“I never noticed it until we got the determination,” he said, ” and then I must have seen five airplanes come over the Burger King the next week.”
Responding to the FAA, the tower’s sponsor, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and college officials are looking at a new site just past the college’s service entrance on Route 132 in West Barnstable. The change is part of the agenda for a community meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. in Grossman Upper Commons at the college.
“We will build a turbine there not exceeding 253 feet in height” to the tip of the blade, Gross said. “It’s a smaller turbine which has smaller blades put on a tower that isn’t quite as high. It’s exactly the same turbine as the one at Mass Maritime Academy, 650 to 700kw.”
(By contrast, the tip of the blades of Cape Wind’s 130 turbines proposed for Nantucket Sound would reach 440 feet).
The scaled-back proposal will not affect the turbine’s importance to the college’s curriculum, according to Gross.
“The whole point is the device ““ how it goes up, how it’s maintained, how it’s integrated into the electrical system,” he said. “All these elements are built into our environmental technology program.”
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Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
