Aug. 21--CONNEAUT -- A wind turbine perched behind Conneaut Middle School could put a big dent in the Conneaut Area City Schools District utility budget, Board of Education members heard at Thursday's regular meeting.

Superintendent Kent Houston distributed copies of a proposal from NexGen Energy of Boulder, Colo., which is interested in building -- at no cost to the district -- a turbine on school property. In return, the district would agreed to buy power created by the turbine for use at CMS and Gateway Elementary School across the street.

NexGen promises to sell the power at a discounted rate. "We would pay less, hopefully a lot less, than we pay now, even with (anticipated rate increases)," said board member Nicholas Iarocci.

Houston and Iarocci represented the school district at a NexGen presentation Tuesday night that also included city officials and members of the Conneaut Port Authority. The city is looking at a turbine that could rise on authority property to help power the municipal waste water treatment plant.

NexGen would cover the complete cost of designing, engineering, constructing and hooking up the turbine. The district's only up-front cost would be a $9,500 per turbine good faith fee that would later be reimbursed via energy credits. The district would also agree to buy power from NexGen for 10 years at a $0.099/kWh start with a 3.9 percent fixed annual increase.

A preliminary study by NexGen suggests a turbine be built behind the middle school in the northwest corner of the property. The 400 kW machine would produce about 25 percent of the buildings' electrical needs, board members learned.

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