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Saipan Southern High School to get wind energy
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Posted on Aug 17 2008
Wind turbines will soon be spinning in the skies over Saipan Southern High School as environmental consultants are preparing to install two separate wind energy systems capable of powering two of the school’s classrooms.
The installation of the wind energy systems stems from a settlement the Environmental Protection Agency and the now closed Concorde Garment Manufacturing company, cited by the EPA in 2005 for violations of hazardous waste laws.
“This came from a negative beginning and has turned into a very positive finish,” said Thomas Polevich of Allied Pacific Environmental Consulting.
Under the EPA’s supplemental environmental programs (SEP) initiative, Polevich said, Concorde can spend 80 percent of the $70,000 settlement—a figure negotiated down from the more than $220,000 fine EPA levied against the company—for a project that has public environmental benefits like the wind energy systems.
The project, according to APEC consultant Robert Jordan, calls for the installation of two types of wind energy systems; a sleek windmill design known as the Skystream and a smaller system called the vertical axis wind turbine—a brand that looks somewhat like an overgrown anemometer.
A key aspect of the Skystream system, he said, is its so-called “net metering” capability, which allows it to “run the meter backwards,” meaning it can turn back the school’s electrical meter to save money. The Skystream, he added, could save the school up to $198 each month in electrical costs and serve as a “catalyst for an alternative energy curriculum.”
