KVCC Offers Wind Turbine Class in Fall 2009

By Cait O'Leary

Kalamazoo Valley Community College is on the forefront of technology and sustainable energy with the announcement that the school will offer a credited course in which students will design a wind turbine.

According to a press release, designing a turbine, fabricating its components, assembling the power-generating unit, and making certain it produces electricity constitutes the mission of a new course this fall at KVCC.

No technical pre-requisites or prior knowledge of computer-aided drafting, machining, welding or electrical technology needed, the eight-credit, multidisciplinary offering (Mach 282) with a lecture-lab format will be open to 20 enrollees on a first-come, first-served basis.
The lead instructors will be Howard Carpenter (machining), Rick Garthe (drafting and design), Erick Martin (welding and fabrication), and Bill Wangler (electrical technology).
“Our goal is to produce a functioning wind turbine that generates one to three kilowatts of electricity,” said Carpenter, the project leader who advanced the concept and received a two-year, $90,000 Innovative Thinking grant from KVCC to proceed with planning, equipment purchase and course design over the summer.

Classes will be held in the college’s technical wing on the Texas Township Campus in the shadow of the new 145-foot turbine that has been generating electricity since early March.

The enrollees will be performing the basic functions and tasks in the design, critical machining and welding phases that produce shafts, blades and other components.  But the more detailed and complex jobs will be handled by the instructors and advanced students.

The electronics will be purchased units. “It’s the process that is important for the students to see and understand,” Carpenter said.  “The turbine that we build will produce electricity, but that’s not the main function.  Its function is to demonstrate the basic design, manufacturing, welding and electrical skills that are needed in making a turbine.”

Course components will include what a practical electrical output would be for a turbine in a variety of locations, wind-energy terminology, how to connect a unit to the existing electrical grid, the basics of electricity, the wiring required, metallurgy, how to optimize
efficiency through design variations, fabrication techniques, how to prevent corrosion, and how to incorporate a small wind turbine into existing structures and buildings.

“We think this course will target anybody who has an interest in wind turbines,” Carpenter said, “whether to build one yourself or buy one.  It will provide answers to questions about what to consider and how to evaluate what is on the market.”

The course-concluding wind turbine, which will have at least three blades that will each be six to eight feet long and stand as high as 30 feet off the ground, will find a spot on KVCC property to serve as a promotional prop for future eight-credit courses.

To register for this course, contact Sue Hills at (269) 488-4371 or go to this web site: www.kvcc.edu/schedule.