CSU looks to turn wind from annoyance to asset

By Associated Press

FORT COLLINS - Those old blue northers that can blow you over or spill your coffee cup will be turned to profit within a decade.

Within eight years, Colorado State University plans to get all its electric power from its own wind farm at a cost of $100 million to $300 million.

The CSU Green Power Project will build a wind farm in northern Colorado that generates more power than the school consumes. It also will include a laboratory for studies on wind power. The area has long been a national wind resource.

The university's nonprofit research foundation made a deal with Wind Holding LLC to build the farm on the university's 11,000-acre Maxwell Ranch near the Wyoming border, a very windy area.
"The Colorado State University Green Power Project is just another step in the university's overall goal to develop reliable and ecologically sound energy alternatives to fossil fuels and to continue groundbreaking research in this area," said Colorado State President Larry Edward Penley. "Colorado State is a leader in global renewable energy solutions, whether that involves running our snowplows on befouls or installing clean-burning, electricity-generating cookstoves in the underdeveloped world."

For decades, the university used biofuels and stepped up recycling as well as reducing water use. The school began offering residence halls and university apartment renters the option of buying green power in 2001.

The school also has many clean energy research projects.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity for a private sector wind power company to combine its years of practical expertise with the world-class green energy research capabilities of Colorado State University," said Bruce Morley, CEO of Wind Holding LLC. "This synergy could result in a quantum technology advance in developing solutions for a pressing domestic energy challenge."

The company has two years to start the project and eight years to finish with a minimum power production of 65 megawatts with a potential of 200 megawatts from 25 wind turbines. CSU, with 25,000 students, has a peak demand of 16 megawatts.

"By powering the university with wind and opening its wind farm to university students and researchers, Colorado State is demonstrating a commitment to developing renewable energy technologies that can provide our nation with secure and clean domestic sources of energy," said Stan Bull, associate director at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)