On This Long-Awaited 'Green' Project, Knowledge IS Power

After a few wiring connections, the flick of a switch, some last-minute adjustments – and a helpful blast of winter wind across the White Deer Valley – Penn College's turbine became operational Thursday. The morning's achievement was several years in the making, beginning with a 2010 U.S. Department of Energy grant through The Pennsylvania State University. Students from the college's two-year renewable energy technologies major will draw primary benefit from the turbine, which is near the Route 15 entrance to the Schneebeli Earth Science Center and begins to generate power when wind speed hits 7-9 miles per hour. (Thursday's current, which provided a timely nudge shortly after the turbine's approval for use, was expected to hit upwards of 20 mph.)  Other majors from the School of Construction and Design Technologies – carpentry, electrical and masonry, among them – helped with installation of the wind turbine, erecting the 24-by-24-foot support building and hooking up the equipment that converts raw, natural energy into usable electricity.