50kW Wind Turbine
About 50kW Wind Turbine
Kalamazoo Valley Community College purchased and installed an Entegrity EW50 – fifty kilowatt wind turbine located at its Texas Township Campus. The completed turbine was dedicated in a ceremony held on February 19, 2009. The event was attended by U.S. Congressman Fred Upton, the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, and students of Kalamazoo Valley Community College along with the general public.
This turbine is used for training purposes in addition to generating electrical power for the college and stands proudly near the athletic fields at KVCC along with several smaller turbines designed and built by KVCC students. You can see current wind speed data and the power generation (in kilowatts) being produced by the Entegrity 50kw turbine by viewing the dials below.
Why wind turbines? In areas where winds blow strongly, wind farms can provide large volumes of electricity, sometimes at a lower cost than conventional power generation. In the US for the past five years, wind power has been one of the largest new sources for electricity generating capacity, second only to new natural gas units.
KVCC Wind System Information
- 50 kilowatt turbine
- Blades: 24 feet in length; epoxy/glass fiber
- Wind speed cut-in: 8.9 mph
- Produces an estimated 10-15% power for the KVCC Advanced Technology Center
- Tower height of 120 feet; monopole
- Distributed energy application
- Wind speed cut-out: 56 mph
- View the specifications for the EW50 Entegrity Turbine
- Frequently Asked Questions