Wind Turbine is Going Up

By JAMES C. FALCON
Turtle Mountain Star
March 10, 2008

The first piece of a wind turbine at the Turtle Mountain Community College was erected last Wednesday afternoon.

At about a quarter to 5:00 p.m., a 60-foot long portion of a tower -- it came in three portions, measuring 60 feet, 68 feet and 78 feet -- was put into place on a hill behind the college. This was the beginning of what will be a 290.4-foot tall turbine.

Principal work on the Vestas V-47 660-kilowatt turbine had started that morning with the assembly of a crane that would help assist in the erection process. The larger crane was used to lift one portion up while the smaller crane was used to balance the other end of the portion. Slowly, the piece of the tower went from lying horizontally on a hill behind the college, to an upright position.

The crane and its accessories were supposed to arrive the day before, March 4, but weather had slowed down the process, said Kris Delorme, project engineer.

Last Thursday and Friday, other essential steps -- putting the grout in for the base, attaching blades to the nosepiece of the turbine -- were conducted.

This week, Vestas, the Denmark-based company that manufactured the turbine, is scheduled to be on site to perform a commission, a test which will show if the turbine is in working order. The commission will be conducted in the nacelle, the part of the turbine where the major components are housed, Delorme said.

The next process in getting the turbine online is with Ottertail Power Company and David Boucher, a master electrician from Rolette, who will get the turbine on the power grid.

When working at 100 percent capacity -- for this to happen, winds would need to blow at 33.35 miles per hour; wind speeds below 9.2 miles per hour won’t register -- the turbine will provide for 90 percent of the college’s usage, Delorme said, adding that this has the potential to save 30 to 50 percent of the college’s yearly electrical costs. To make up for the 10 percent not supplied by the turbine, Delorme said the college would look at other “green” sources of energy, making the college’s energy sources 100 percent dependent on green energy sources. In a statement made last year, Delorme said that the alternative sources would most likely be solar panels.

For Delorme, the beginning of the turbine’s erection was a long time coming; the pieces had arrived on the campus on a rainy June morning.

Last week, she had her day. “I feel good to have it finally on its way of being completed,” Delorme said. “I will take a breath when it’s online and running.”

Delorme said that her goal is to get the turbine online and working by late April. The outcome of the commission, however, is the deciding factor on whether or not this goal will be met, Delorme said.