This 100 kilowatt Fuhrlander wind turbine, owned by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is located in Dorchester and is similar to what the Swansea School Department is considering.

SWANSEA - When school committee members were given the opportunity to bring up issues of concern to them at a meeting earlier this month, Ellen Furtado had a polite reminder for Superintendent of Schools Stephan Flanagan. "Steve, my windmills," Ms. Furtado said.

When the committee's next meeting took place Monday night, Mr. Flanagan came prepared to address the issue. What issue? The school department is looking to greatly reduce its electrical costs by employing a wind turbine to power one of its schools.

Mr. Flanagan told the committee that he had begun filling out an application for a grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), a quasi-public firm charged with administering the Renewable Energy Trust Fund created by the state legislature in 1998. The grant would come from the Large Onsite Renewables Initiative (LORI), and could be used toward a feasibility study for a windmill to generate electrical power.

"I think it's timely for us to get in on this," Mr. Flanagan said. "The high school would qualify, as would the Hoyle School, based on kilowatt usage."

Qualifications

To qualify, a public or private site for which a windmill is sought must have a nameplate capacity of ten kilowatts or more. Mr. Flanagan said Swansea's needs would likely be in the range of 30 to 50 kilowatts. One thing that would need to be determined in the feasibility study is whether or not either of the aforementioned school sites can generate sufficient wind. Much more obvious, Mr. Flanagan said, was the need for an affordable source of energy, particularly given the high school's electricity costs.

"We've got $100,000 budgeted for the year," he said. "We have already spent about $51,000 so far."

It was Ms. Furtado who first brought up the issue of windmills to address this problem. She became interested in the idea of windmill-generated electricity after talking with friends on other school committees who had undertaken such endeavors.

"They have found it to be a real savings," Ms. Furtado said. "In fact, they are in the process of trying to get another one."

Elsewhere

"They" are the Upper Cape Regional School Committee. Mr. Flanagan said that he actually acquired a copy of the request for proposal (RFP) that has been generated for that second windmill. He said that the second windmill will be larger than the first, and will be comparable to what is being considered for Swansea. He added that he recently got a look at the existing windmill.

"They're in a great place," he said. "They're on the Cape Cod side of the Bourne Bridge, so they're in a great place for constant wind."

Tyler Leeds, project coordinator for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, said the Upper Cape Regional windmill was one of two constructed as a result of LORI grants, the other is located at a facility in Dorchester owned by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He said that both had expressed satisfaction with their windmills, and that several solar energy projects had also been undertaken with similar grants.

"The goal of MTC is to move the demand for clean and renewable energy, but also the supply," he said. "By supplementing these projects, we can help small businesses and municipalities create a hedge against rising energy costs."

Mr. Flanagan said that submitting an application for the current third round of LORI grants would not be feasible, as the deadline for submitting the applications is Feb. 28. He suggested instead that the school department make a serious attempt at getting in on the fourth round, as the federal government had committed to funding that round at the $3,500,000 level it had afforded round three, and possibly more. The application deadline for round four will likely be in August.