Humor columnist Even Brest calls it "Kettering's Biggest Fan"
Dr. David Benson comments that the university is "breaking wind"
To student Bill Wojcik, though, his thesis project is an opportunity for Kettering students of all disciplines to have access to hands-on experience with wind energy.
This past Wednesday saw the installation of an urban wind turbine on the roof of Kettering University's Academic Building. The turbine is part of senior Bill Wojcik's academic thesis project.
Wojcik was employed by Iverson Industries during much of his time at Kettering, but the company was hit by the downturn in the automotive industry and had to make cuts. Given the tough job market, Bill began to pursue an academic thesis. Wind energy caught his eye. "Originally I wanted to build [a wind turbine], but that's not so easy," he laughs. The extensive time, design work, and testing required to make a wind turbine from scratch led Bill to focus on finding and implementing an existing wind turbine solution in an arbitrary location- the roof of Kettering's Academic Building. "For a while I was pursuing a vertical shaft wind turbine, but this turned out to be the best solution."
The chosen solution is a Swift Wind Turbine from Cascade Engineering. This small turbine is only a distant cousin to the giant machines one might see churning away in wind farms, however. The inverter box for the unit ties directly into Kettering's energy grid, allowing the turbine to contribute power whenever the wind is blowing. The maximum output is 1.5 kW, enough to power a few dozen light bulbs, perhaps, but a drop in the bucket of Kettering's energy use. With a price tag of about $10,000, the time it would take this project to pay for itself is best measured in decades, but Wojcik emphasizes that this isn't the point. "All kinds of students can learn from this project," he says. "ME, EE, CE, everyone can use it for their own projects."
