Sep. 25--DECATUR -- Rising 125 feet in the air, the wind turbine on the Richland Community College campus can't be missed.

"It's the first thing I see when I drive into Decatur from the north," Richland President Gayle Saunders said.

It's also the first wind turbine on a community college campus in Illinois, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opened it Thursday. Saunders called the wind turbine a "signature innovation," one of the ways the college is fulfilling the board of trustees' directive to create a culture of sustainability on campus.

"Sustainability seems to be a buzzword these days, but what does it really mean?" Saunders said. "When we talk about sustainable development, we're seeking to meet the needs of the people today, without compromising those of future generations."

Wind, especially in Central Illinois, is a renewable resource, and the wind turbine has the potential to supply all of the power needed to run the college's "green" building, the Center for Sustainability and Innovation. Since it began operating a month ago, the turbine already has created 6,700 kilowatt hours of energy, with the potential to create 200,000 per year. Richland Vice President of Finance Greg Florian said the hope is that the wind turbine and the center's other innovations such as geothermal heating will make that building achieve net zero energy usage.

The turbine's presence on campus also will provide real-life training for students studying wind energy technology, said Doug Brauer, vice president of economic development and innovative work force solutions.

Wind turbines are the wave of meeting future energy needs, but at the moment, they're still very expensive, said Wegi Stewart, executive director of the Richland Community College Foundation. Without a donor, who wished to remain anonymous, the college could not have afforded such a project, she said.

Florian demonstrated the "dashboard," a computer readout of the wind turbine's activity, wind speed and the energy generated, which will be available soon on Richland's Web site.

Illinois ranks 10th in the United States for wind-powered generation capacity and 16th in potential capacity.

"The love that I have for sailing and using the power of the wind is always something that is near and dear to me," Florian said. "To take that and use it to produce a clean energy source in our facility here, it helps our bottom line by producing energy. It's just a great thing to have."

vwells@herald-review.com 421-7982

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