The construction is to start on a 156-foot wind turbine that will produce 164,000 kW hours of electricity a year. It will be built next to the Automotive Technology center, where the average wind speed is 11.9 miles per hour. The $445,000 turbine is a little more than half the height of the huge turbine at Portsmouth Abbey.
“It certainly will be visible,” said Philip G. Parsons, NEIT’s vice president and general counsel.
The school is paying the full price for the wind unit, and it will be a long time before the school breaks even in energy savings, Parsons said. “If we were doing this just for energy, it would be very costly. We’re doing it for educational purposes,” for the 187 students in its Electrical Technology program.
When the school is in session, NEIT will save some money as it will not have to buy as much power from local utility National Grid.
“New England Tech uses an enormous amount of energy in their portfolio, and we’re helping to offset some of that,” said Colin Roberts of Alteris Renewables in Bristol, which is building both projects. The solar project “is one of the larger ones we’ve installed.”
The solar panels will be operational as early as next week.
Work on the foundation for the wind turbine was to start this week, but the school is still trying to get the final permits, said Parsons.
It will take around a month for the foundation to cure. Then the turbine itself can be erected.
“The tower,” Parsons said, “goes up in two or three days.”
