Wind turbines will save school districts cashBreezy Money

Wynford Local Schools Superintendent Steve Mohr is pleased with the results of the two wind turbines installed two years ago at the school in Holmes Township.

“One benefit educationally is that teachers can access data that is provided,” Mohr said. “They can monitor the kilowatts of energy and access different sites.”

The financial benefit has yet to be realized after two years, but Mohr said he’s confident that will occur. The turbines were installed in April 2011 by NexGen.

“It’s almost too early in the contract to tell about the savings,” he said.

The school now has a fixed cost for electricity usage for the next eight years, the superintendent noted.

“A lot of that is determined by the actual costs of electricity. But it should be a huge savings,” he said. “We should have a better feel for that this summer.”

Mohr said the arrangement is ideal.

“We have no costs to operate them,” he said. “They (NexGen) inspect them regularly and monitor them from Vermont by computer.

“They pay to put them up, maintain them and service them. It’s about the best deal I’ve ever negotiated.”

It’s estimated the project will account for about 30 percent of the electricity to both the high school and elementary school buildings. Wynford’s two turbines are 100 kilowatts and stand 130 feet tall and are not close to any residential property.

After two years, Randy Harvey also is pleased with the wind turbine project at Ontario Local Schools.

“It’s doing what we anticipated that it would do in regards to saving money,” said the Ontario treasurer.

The first year the wind turbines generated 212,000 kilowatts and another 194,000 in year two, he noted.

“We’ll average about 200,000 kilowatts per year if they’re working as we think,” he said.

Harvey estimated an annual savings of $8,000 in electricity, a number that should increase.

He said NexGen Energy Partners LLC installed the two turbines and also converted the elementary school from a secondary to a primary connection.

“That will save one cent per kilowatt in our Ohio Edison costs,” Harvey said. “Most of our cost savings is from that change.”

Ontario signed a 10-year contract with NextGen.

Harvey said classrooms will be able to tap into information and expand on the knowledge of wind turbines, how they generate energy and at what speed.

“We had no financial outlay except for a little less than $10,000 up front and we’ll get that back with energy credits,” he said.

Those credits begin in year six.

“This puts us at 10 percent of our electrical needs, and we’re 10 percent less dependent on the electrical grid that everyone uses,” Harvey said.

LUKERG Renew orders wind turbines

The LUKERG Renew partnership has placed a “firm and unconditional” order with German firm Vestas for 36 wind turbines for the Topolog Dorobantu wind farm project in Tulcea, Romania. The turbines will have a combined capacity of 72MW and LUKERG has kept open the option to buy a further 12MW worth of wind turbines from the engineering firm, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

The turbines are due for delivery in the second half of 2013, but Vestas did not give a figure for the value of the order.

Vestas Central Europe President Thomas Richterich said the project marks another important milestone in further the developing the promising Romanian wind energy market. The order reinforces Vestas place in the Romanian market “as a leading player with the strongest local presence and the largest operational fleet,” according to Vestas managing director for Romania Catalina Dragomir.

Vestas also added to the recent comments from the renewable energy sector on the planned reduction in green certificates awarded, following recommendations from Romania’s energy authority ANRE. Chief sales officer Juan Araluce said his company is hoping for speedy clarification from the Romanian government on renewable energy incentives policy, saying that short-term energy price concerns should be balanced with keeping investment in the sector feasible.

When complete, the Topolog Dorobantu plant will produce over 200GWh per year; enough energy for 60,000 households and a saving of 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to Vestas.

Vestas is an engineering firm specialized in producing wind turbines. Its Central and Eastern European division is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany and the company has created employment for 18,000 people worldwide. The company has so far installed wind turbines in 73 countries.

LUKERG Renew, a joint venture between Russian Lukoil and Italian energy group ERG. The new group took over the Romanian wind park end-2012.

The buyer planned at the time to invest some EUR 135 million in this new project and planned to start construction at the wind park in the first quarter of 2013. LUKERG also plans to have the project running in 2014.

ERG Renew and LUKOIL-Ecoenergo signed a joint venture agreement in 2011 for LUKERG Renew, based in Vienna. The joint venture will initially focus its operations on Bulgaria and Romania, followed by Ukraine and Russia, according to previous announcements. The recent deal is the second transaction for the JV, after buying a 40MW operational wind farm in Bulgaria from Raiffeisen Energy & Environment.

ERG Renew (ERG Group) is active in the generation of electricity from renewable sources, above all in the wind sector. As regards Italy, there are currently 8 wind farms in operation, with a total installed capacity of 246 MW; in France, subsidiary ERG Eolienne France S.a.s. owns 6 wind farms, with a total installed capacity of 64.4 MW.

South Bend building foundation for more tech firms

City leaders' vision for Ignition Park might not be obvious to passers-by on Sample Street, where two towering dirt piles sit along the northern edge of the state-certified technology park.

But those who turn south on Franklin Street or Prairie Avenue will gain a better idea of how the future might look on the former Studebaker manufacturing site.

The streetlights that line Ignition Circle don't draw any power from the electrical grid. Instead, they're equipped with small wind turbines and solar panels.

Data Realty is up and running in its sleek, new $15 million building. The data-storage company announced in early 2011 that it would move to a five-acre site in the tech park, and it did so in November.

Jitin Kain, director of planning for the South Bend Department of Community Investment, said there have been "a few general inquiries" from other companies about the availability of land at Ignition Park. He said the city is finalizing a strategy for the tech park's management, which will help in recruiting additional businesses.

A plat of the tech park shows 16 lots that vary in size from 2.83 acres to 5.93 acres. Kain said the city is asking buyers for $26,250 per acre.

Kain said city officials are also putting together a request for proposals from private developers to construct a multi-tenant building at Ignition Park. Such a structure could house several early-phase companies, which might be ready to move out of the incubator Innovation Park at Notre Dame but not ready to individually finance a new building.

"The city is not a developer, so we would not build the multitenant building," Kain wrote in an e-mail. "We have identified the need for a multitenant building and will look to the private sector to build it."

Kain said officials are also finalizing a plan for grading the entire 84-acre park. The soil piled up in the northern part of the site will be used for that purpose.

The South Bend Redevelopment Commission, the entity that owns the Ignition Park property, recently approved a contract with Selge Construction to do the grading work. Kain said it should be done within a month.

The commission has also authorized the city to acquire additional parcels, totaling roughly 12 acres, between Indiana Avenue and Ignition Park's southern boundary. Kain said the city's long-term goal for the park to cover 140 acres will be evaluated for feasibility over time.

South Bend officials launched their effort to develop Ignition Park on the former Studebaker land in 2008 after the Semiconductor Research Corp.'s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative selected the University of Notre Dame as one of its national research centers.

They saw an opportunity to leverage the region's broadband infrastructure and the Studebaker corridor's power capacity -- a positive legacy left from the defunct automaker -- to turn blighted industrial land into a base for technology firms. City officials have put a significant down payment toward that effort.

Kain said acquisition, demolition and environmental remediation on the Studebaker and nearby Oliver Plow sites cost about $30 million. That funding came from a combination of local, state and federal sources.

The city spent another $2.5 million for new roads, utilities and other design and infrastructure work in Ignition Park's first phase, he said. Officials are investigating costs for the next phase.