MSU selects site up north for wind test

Windpower might be the key to opening a number of learning and energy opportunities for residents and students of Michigan’s northern lower peninsula.

MSU officials chose Concord Montessori and Community School in Mancelona, Mich., a K-12 public charter school for about 200 students across the area, as a test site for a potential wind farm in the area.

Last Thursday, officials installed a 100-foot anemometer to measure wind speed and direction at increments of 30, 75 and 100 feet, said Eric Wittenberg, a research specialist at the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Initial data from the instrument will be collected at the end of the month, Wittenberg said. If average wind speeds are high enough and results are promising after the year-long study, the site could be used to provide energy for the school and, later, the surrounding community, he said.

“After the data is collected, we’ll ask ‘What is your energy consumption and what do you want to do?’” Wittenberg said. “We’ll get some ideas of what they want to achieve.”

In the years ahead, school officials would like it to become a true “green” building if data shows winds can sustain wind turbines, said Erik Schupbach, Concord Montessori and Community School director of outdoor education.

And although the wind instrument stands in the school’s backyard, students will have the hands-on opportunity of learning about natural resources and how politically active communities can be involved with the issue of renewable energy, he said.

“(It) lets our students know that there’s a future of renewable energy out there. Also, (this project) gets the students involved in the community to see how projects like these can go forward,” Schupbach said.

Northern lower Michigan has numerous wind turbines, making the school site an acceptable testing ground for measuring wind speed, said Jeff Halblaub, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gaylord, Mich.

According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Michigan Department of Transportation, average wind speeds at the Antrim Country Airport in Bellaire, Mich., about
12 miles northwest of Mancelona, measures about 3 mph.