SIAST installs wind turbine for teaching

The Moose Jaw SIAST Palliser campus installed the city's first wind turbine Tuesday afternoon in the school's parking lot, across from the Kinsmen sportsplex softball diamonds.
Ron Thompson, a civil/water resources and environmental engineering technology instructor, said the turbine will act as a teaching tool for quite a few SIAST programs.
He has been working on the turbine project for almost a year and was pleased to see it finally go up Tuesday.
"This has been (close to) a year in the making and by the time we have everything completely ready to go, it really will have been almost a year."
Thompson said the information collected by the turbine will be part of an applied research project.
It will collect data on wind speed, direction and duration, net electricity generated and noise levels.
Thompson said the goal of the project is to see if the expectations predicted in Tuesday's news release - that the 1.3 kilowatt turbine can produce enough power to meet half of the energy requirements for a two-person household - is correct.
In the release, Arnold Boldt, dean of technology at SIAST, said although this is a small turbine it will have a large impact on the programs and students who get to use it.
"Renewable energy is becoming an important part of our world and our students will benefit from the hands-on experience of working with the data collected from the turbine," said Boldt.
The company that designed the Palliser campus turbine is Raum Energy of Saskatoon.
There will be an event held in the fall to mark the official opening of the Palliser wind turbine.

Lyndsay McCready can be reached at 691-1256.