Repair, Maintenance and Rededication of Skystream 3.7 Wind Turbine

Presentation Description: Western Michigan University installed and dedicated a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine in 2007 for the primary purpose of creating a charging station in the engineering campus parking garage which was novel at the time. Through a generous grant from REpowering Schools, our Center was awarded $6,000 to repair the unit. Luckily, Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) houses an intensive 24-week Wind Turbine Technician Academy which is located 3 miles from our engineering campus. The refurbishment of our SkyStream 3.7 wind turbine system has allowed us to begin exploring new academic programs such as a certificate in Sustainable Energy Generation and a bachelorette degree in Wind Engineering. Combining the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Suniva-Soar Edge Array, our SMA-Shingle Array with the Skystream 3.7 system will facilitate the field exercises of the proposed certificate. Our Advanced Wind Tunnel and Fluid Mechanics Laboratory will facilitate the Wind Engineering program. The collaboration between WMU and KVCC, with funding from REpowering Schools was noticed by regional media outlets precipitating with multiple news segments throughout Michigan and Northern Indiana. We had great exposure through four television news segments and we were able to reach 2,540,000 million viewers.!