The new wind generator towering over Proctor High School is doing more than generating pollution-free electricity.
The generator, whose blades have been turning briskly in the breeze for about two months, has become a highly visible symbol of the district's commitment to earth education.
"It's a billboard for earth education in Proctor," said high school science teacher Derek Parendo. He proposed the idea in 2004 and -- along with a core group of staff and students, a grant from Minnesota Power and assistance from Minnesota's Clean Energy Resource Team -- helped bring it to fruition.
The district already has three well-used school forests, one each at the Bay View, Pike Lake and Caribou Lake elementary schools; a decade-long stream study and water-quality monitoring program at the middle school; and a continuing push by district Buildings and Grounds Director Jack Johnson to make the district's buildings more energy efficient.
So when Parendo approached Superintendent Diane Rauschenfels about putting up a wind generator to harness some of the wind that sweeps across the ridge near the high school, at 131 Ninth Ave., she didn't hesitate.
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"As a keeper of the earth, any time I have the ability to help staff work on sustainability issues, I'm willing to do it," she said. "This is something I've long held close to my heart."
A Minnesota Power grant covered half the $50,000 price tag for the generator, and the First National Bank in Proctor found a low-interest loan for the district to pay for the rest. Parendo said the generator should pay for the costs in five or six years.
Though it stretches 133 feet into the sky, the 20-kilowatt capacity generator is a mid-sized model. The generator's electricity first supplies a nearby locker room. Anything extra flows into the Minnesota Power grid, and the district's power meter rolls backwards.
Since the blades began spinning in late October, the generator has clocked about 2,000 kilowatts, Johnson said. An average home uses about 800 kilowatts per month.
But it's not all about dollars and cents, district employees say. It's also about teaching students
"When Proctor students are done with school, they will become consumers," Parendo said. "In 10 years, when they buy a car or start building a house, hopefully they will look at the environmental aspects" of their decisions.
For instance, can that shiny new pickup truck burn E85 ethanol instead of gasoline? And if so, what would be the difference in greenhouse gas emissions? And if Americans consume less oil imported from the Middle East, what impact would that have on the region's political power?
Math and science teachers already have incorporated the wind generator into their regular lessons, including using it to calculate acceleration and power, Parendo said. Students had to approach Midway Township officials to ask permission to erect the generator on township land, and appeal to neighbors who initially were opposed to having a wind generator near their homes.
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But it hasn't stopped at the school's science classrooms. The high school marketing class is studying the market for energy-efficient homes, and the construction class might tackle building analternative-energy powered home as one of their next projects.
"It's contagious," Johnson said.
And Parendo isn't done yet. He would like to raise an estimated $1,500 to buy more monitoring equipment for the generator, so students can see how much power is being generated from any computer. Then perhaps some solar panels for Pike Lake and Caribou Lake Elementary Schools. The district is also moving along with an energy-efficiency improvement program it began in 1997.
Staff have replaced nearly all the district's fluorescent light fixtures with more efficient ones, added motion sensors to lights and improved building heating systems, among other things. So far, those savings have kept about $469,000 in the district's pocketbook, Johnson said.
"It's some nice dollar savings, along with being what we think is the right thing to do," Johnson said.
