Sep. 1--GARDNER -- Mount Wachusett Community College President Daniel M. Asquino believes the state's decision to put wind turbines on campus here will make the college an example for all public institutions in the commonwealth to follow.

"I hope we can be a model for institutions and organizations and a learning lab for all of our students," Asquino said during an interview shortly after the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced the news.

College officials have been working toward installing wind turbines at the Gardner campus for "at least five years," Asquino said.

"It's very exciting; it's taken us a long time to get to this point," he said late Monday afternoon.

The Patrick administration announced plans to design and install several wind turbines on state property in Gardner, at Mount Wachusett Community College and the Department of Correction's North Central Correctional Institution.

Working in collaboration with the Department of Energy Resources (DOER), which runs the Leading by Example program, the Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) issued Requests for Proposals (RFP) to install two 1.65 MW turbines at the North Central Correctional Institution and one or two turbines of the same size at Mount Wachusett Community College, depending on available funding.

"The installation of these turbines will increase the Commonwealth's installed wind power capacity by at least 50 percent -- moving us closer to

Gov. Patrick's ambitious wind power goal," Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said in a statement released by his office.

Asquino said installation of the turbines at MWCC's campus -- and he's confident two will be erected there -- will make them energy self-sufficient and more.

"We'll be totally self-sustainable and with two turbines we'll actually be putting energy back into the grid and we'll get credit for that," Asquino said.

All public buildings built in the future should be self-sustainable, Asquino said, not only because it's good for the environment but because it saves money over time.

"It costs more to build the buildings, but over the long run, it actually saves money," he said.

The planned installation of the wind turbines follows in the long tradition of the use of alternative energies at the college, including the conversion of its all-electrical campus to a heating system run on locally available biofuels, Asquino noted.

"We thought, let's do this, let's take this to the next level," Asquino said.

The $8 million wind-turbine project at the college will be paid for through a mix of sources, including a Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust grant, $2 million in federal stimulus money, roughly $3.5 in federal monies secured by U.S. Rep. John Olver and a $2 million no-interest, 30-year loan the college will take out to make the project a reality, Asquino said.

The college president said work on erecting the turbines could begin as soon as April, but he thinks it's more realistic that the two turbines will be up and operating in a year.

Lisa Capone, the press secretary for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said Monday that while "the college has been very active in pursing sustainable, alternative energies," wind resources are the overriding factor in deciding where it makes sense to put wind turbines on state property.

Testing at MWCC determined that the site can support large wind turbine installations, according to the statement from Bowles' office.

"This is a long-awaited project that couldn't be coming at a better time. Not only will the turbine provide substantial financial rewards in terms of future cost savings, but it will also provide educational rewards as Mount Wachusett Community College expands its program offerings in renewable energy education, a high-demand and rapidly expanding field," said Department of Higher Education Commissioner Richard M. Freeland. "I commend Mount Wachusett Community College and President Asquino for their leadership in this arena."

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