WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Purdue University is weighing a proposal to join private companies in developing a wind farm that would generate revenue for the school and feed into student and faculty research projects.
School officials want to erect 30 wind turbines on about 1,600 acres of school land in northern Tippecanoe County under a partnership that would also give them access to another 30 turbines on nearby land.
The 100 megawatts of electricity the 60 turbines would generate would not be used to power campus buildings, but would instead be sold to a utility. Purdue, however, would get land lease payments for the turbines on its land, said Ken Sandel, Purdue director of physical and capital planning.
Sandel and other officials briefed a Purdue board of trustees committee about the proposal Wednesday in advance of an expected vote by the full board on the idea Feb. 4.
But the Journal & Courier reports that the trustees were hesitant to fully back the plan until they saw a financial impact analysis and understood how ongoing university research that could be affected by the wind farm. Others asked for details on how much cost and revenue the school would see from the proposed Purdue Energy Park.
"There needs to be some strong discussion about this," said trustee Mamon Powers. "I'd like to see some kind of finance modeling to see what kind of cost will come to Purdue."
Sandel said the project would be a joint effort among Purdue, the Purdue Research Foundation, General Electric and Performance Services, an Indianapolis-based engineering and construction company.
He said the focus would be opening up new research and teaching areas, such as wind energy technology, turbine load management, environmental, agricultural, the social impacts of turbines and more.
Sandel said that plans for a Purdue wind farm go back to 2005, when a meteorological tower was installed at the site about 10 miles north of the West Lafayette campus on mostly agricultural land that encompasses the Purdue Animal Sciences Research and Education Center.
Trustee Michael Berghoff, the committee's chairman, said the project's potential research payoffs would mesh well with Purdue's engineering expertise.
"The research description and benefits that would come out of something like this fit perfectly with the whole Purdue mission," he said. "This is something concrete and specific. You talk about turbine design — that is a classic Purdue topic."
The Purdue Energy Park would encompass Performance Park, a 30-turbine wind energy farm being developed on more than 2,400 acres of private land by Performance Services, and would be the county's first wind farm.
Performance Services would be the design-builder of both parks and is in negotiations with a major financial investor for the commercial venture, Purdue officials said.
Scott Zigmond, the vice president of sales and marketing for Performance Services, said the company is in discussions over which utility company would purchase the power.
Purdue says that the school would receive at least $300,000 per year, or $10,000 per turbine, from the land leases on the turbines located on Purdue-owned land.
Jay Akridge, dean of the College of Agriculture, said some of that money would go to the Animal Sciences Research and Education Center to make up for lost crop production and or increased operating costs. About 20 acres of land would be needed for turbines and access roads at the center.
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