These windy winter days aren’t pleasant for the school children who have to brave the cold to walk back and forth to school.
But at Cedar Rapids Public School, those same windy days will benefit the school’s bottom line.
Construction on a 60-foot wind turbine for the school was completed on Dec. 30. The turbine was installed through the Wind for Schools Project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America Program.
Those present at the school while the turbine was raised were electricians Marv Zoucha and Allen Kolm; Dr. Jerry Hudgins, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and his wife Sheryl Hudgins; UNL graduate student Joel Jacobs; Loup Public Power District employees Guy Imus, Tony Dubas, Brian Herman, Paul Burbach and Theresa Petr, and school faculty and staff members.
The turbine’s total cost was about $17,000. The district’s share was only $1,500. The remainder was funded through grants and donations.
