Read on to find out about our activities from the past several months.
2014 Minnesota State Fair
From August 21-September 1, 2014, Windustry presented the Wind Energy Center at the Minnesota State Fair for the ninth consecutive year. Over the course of the 12 days of the State Fair, approximately 350,000 people visited the Eco Experience building, where our exhibits were housed.
One of our most notable attractions was a 123 foot turbine blade that has been installed vertically, like a tall sculpture, near the front entrance of the building. The Wind Energy Center also had a replica of a wind turbine tower base for visitors to enter and watch educational videos provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Landowners interested in small wind were able browse a condensed form of Windustry’sSmall Wind Toolbox on display as a flipbook and learn about net metering through an interactive light board. Maps and data were also a big part of the Wind Energy Center. A seven foot tall map of the wind speeds at 80 meters in Minnesota was on display, and detailed wind energy FAQs were posted. A new exhibit this year was a desktop application using geographic information science (GIS). Visitors could view map layers featuring wind speeds, large wind turbines, and small scale & community wind projects.
Windustry staff and partners have been hard at work establishing the Midwest Wind Energy Center (MWEC). We are developing a large online resource library, giving presentations at conferences, and broadening our work on policy and the economic & environmental benefits of renewable energy.
MWEC was created in 2014 with an initiative from the U.S. Department of Energy. Six “Wind Energy Regional Resource Centers” were selected through a competitive process administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Read more about the resource centers here.
