By Cate Lecuyer
BEVERLY — By next year, Endicott College could get 30 percent of its energy from an on-campus windmill.
"We're hoping by October, November or December the wind turbine will be built and spinning, and creating electricity," said Chris Tripler, an assistant environmental science professor.
The college received a $32,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for a feasibility study, which mainly involves collecting data from a 150-foot pole in the woods behind the main campus.
The 250-foot, 1.5-megawatt windmill would go in about the same place.
The pole, installed in December, measures wind speed and direction. Gusts have to reach up to 14 mph to meet requirements for a turbine, and the first round of data just came in.
"We're at that, or a little above that, for the last two months," Tripler said. "If we continue to see the numbers we're seeing now, we should be able to get 25 to 30 percent of our energy needs for the campus fulfilled."
Installing a windmill at Endicott has always been an idea with a kind of "ebb and flow" of momentum, Tripler said.
"I took up the charge, using students to front the project," Tripler said.
Students from different majors came together to help with different parts of the project, from the initial research and planning, to clearing brush to set up the measuring pole.
The grant will help pay for the data analysis, along with more involved studies of how the windmill would affect the surrounding land and animals.
Tripler said the college plans to apply for another grant in June in hopes of receiving funding for the actual turbine.
Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salem news.com.
