Texas - Kalamazoo Valley Community College installs 145-foot wind turbine

There's a 145-foot-tall addition to Kalamazoo Valley Community College's main campus.

Just west of the college's Texas Township building, workers installed a $250,000 wind turbine, with its 120-foot-tall steel tower and 25-foot-long Fiberglas blades.

The turbine, which took about eight hours to erect, is part of KVCC's new Wind Energy Center.

College officials believe there's a burgeoning industry in harnessing wind energy that will bring jobs to Michigan. College officials want KVCC to be among those training technicians on wind turbine technology.

Even President Barack Obama said in his inaugural address that the country will harness sun, wind and soil to fuel the nation's cars and run its factories.

KVCC officials are developing a 35-credit-hour certificate to equip wind-energy technicians and the college's Michigan Technical Education Center also will provide training.

In addition to being a teaching tool, the new turbine may generate as much as 15 percent of the energy needed to power the Advanced Technology Center, which is a wing of KVCC's Texas Township building.