Cleveland's design-review officials on Thursday approved erecting the 12-story turbine just west of Adelbert Road, on the school's southern campus.
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View full sizeThis rendering shows how a 100-kilowatt wind turbine would appear after installation in Case Western Reserve University's southern campus. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Case Western Reserve University will erect a wind turbine on campus, part of a $6 million effort to boost the region as a research hub and parts supplier for the fast-growing, wind power industry.
Cleveland's design-review officials on Thursday approved erecting the 12-story turbine just west of Adelbert Road, on the school's southern campus.
The 100-kilowatt turbine would be the smallest of three turbines Case Western and seven local businesses plan to erect as they establish a wind-energy research and commercialization center at the university.
Center officials want to install two taller turbines at a highly visible site in Euclid, south of where Interstate 90 meets Ohio 2.
The site is owned by William Sopko & Sons Co., a manufacturer that's among the seven companies teaming with the university.
The companies would use the turbines to test innovations in mechanical, electrical and power-storage systems, officials said.
"This gives us a living, breathing science experiment," said Joseph Kovach, vice president of technology and innovation for the hydraulics group at Parker-Hannifin Corp.
The company plans to use one of the turbines to test a hydraulic drive train that incorporates energy storage, Kovach said.
The research center began taking shape last year, after Case Western and the companies won some $3 million in grants from Ohio's Third Frontier, a taxpayer-funded program supporting high-tech development.
An additional $3 million in money and services for the project will be contributed by the companies.
"We've got a beautiful supply chain here in Ohio," said David Matthiesen, project leader and an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Case Western. Matthiesen said. "Companies need a place to demonstrate their products, to gain even faster acceptance in the market."
The university will plan curriculum and graduate research around the turbines, Matthiesen said. And Case Western will collaborate with Lorain County Community College, which has a two-year program to train students in wind technology, he said.
Lessons learned from the three turbines will also apply to plans calling for five wind turbines to rise in Lake Erie by 2012, off downtown Cleveland's shore.
Matthiesen and the university's Great Lakes Energy Institute are key players in that project, whose larger purpose is to establish the region as a center for an off-shore wind industry in the Great Lakes.
The small-turbine project approved Thursday by the Euclid Corridor Design Review District is scheduled for review this morning by the Cleveland City Planning Commission.
The turbine's hub will stand 121 feet high, while the tip of the rotating blades will reach 156 feet, officials said.
The turbine would rise near athletic fields that front Veale Center and would help power the building, university officials said.
In other action, the design-review officials approved installing 4,500-square-feet of solar panels on Adelbert Gym, near the wind turbine site.
The work will be done by Ohio Cooperative Solar, a recently formed company that aims to employ residents from neighborhoods around University Circle.
Case Western will pay 12 cents a kilowatt-hour for the power, a bit above the cost of conventional power, officials said.
The panels could supply 40 to 60 percent of the gym's electrical needs annually, said Eugene Matthews, director of the university's Department of Facilities Services.