Forest City, IA- Jumping on the green energy bandwagon isn't working out for an area school.
On Monday we told you the Northwood-Kensett school board is considering the sale of its wind turbine. The machine is located about 15 miles away from the school. It sits still at the Top of Iowa wind farm just east of Joice.
The school isn't getting the type of revenue it hoped for, Superintendent Tom Nugent says he would do things differently the second time around.
"I think if I could start over and get the turbine on school grounds and then I would definitely start over and make it work," Nugent said.
Forest City’s wind mill has become a symbol of the school district. Ten years ago a physics student and his teacher studied the feasibility of a wind turbine.
“They really did their homework and did it the right way, you're gonna see huge benefits from it from here on out," said Forest City Superintendent Darwin Lehmann.
Despite the wealth of data, some folks like Paul Jefson, who was Forest City’s Mayor at the time and also happens to be the school’s maintenance director were skeptical.
“Quite frankly I was hoping at the time it wasn’t going to be a white elephant, I have to be honest with you,” he said.
It didn’t take long for the skeptics to turn into believers. Initially the turbine was cranking out 60 percent of the schools energy needs. That number has dropped to 40 percent as the school has expanded. Since 1999, it has provided an annual savings of about $60,000.
“Tell me where else you can find $60,000 savings in your budget in today's economic times," said Lehman.
One of the biggest advantages Forest City's wind turbine has is that it's located on campus. It allows the maintenance staff to keep a close eye on it.
"If you're looking at it every day you're gonna stay on top of it," said Assistant Maintenance Director Dan Millard
"The closer you can keep it to your facility without endangering anybody from ice and things like that the better off you are," said Jefson.
Millard is responsible for keeping the turbine running smoothly, and he knows it inside and out.
Unlike Northwood-Kensett’s turbine, he can check the machine's status from anywhere via the internet.
"If there's something I don't know, I'll call the turbine company in Denmark and they'll walk me through it."
He's also working with Northwood-Kensett. Their smaller turbine is made by the same Danish company Nordex.
Meanwhile the churning blades in forest city are about to pay even more dividends to the school district.
"In fact we're going to make our last payment this month and everything from here on out will be nothing but revenue, so that's a real positive thing," Lehmann said.
"And if I have one regret we should have built two of them instead of one," added Jefson.
Jefson says the district may talk about putting up a second wind mill in the future. The only major malfunction in Forest City over the years has been a faulty gear box, which needed to be replaced.
