ANN ARBOR – The city of Ann Arbor is planning to partner with Ann Arbor Public Schools and New York-based Wind Products Inc. on a potential $1.4 million wind energy project.
The exact location hasn’t been determined yet, but the idea is to install up to two wind turbines as demonstrations on school property, said Brian Steglitz, a senior utilities engineer for the city, told Ann Arbor.Com.
The Ann Arbor City Council voted 10-0 Monday night to accept and appropriate up to $951,500 in federal grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy for the project.
Steglitz said the size of the turbines hasn’t been decided yet, but theoretically they could be 100 to 150 feet high with 30-foot spinning blades.
He told council members he didn’t have potential sites that he could share with them, though some are speculating it’s most likely to be at a high school ? either Skyline, Huron or Pioneer.
“We’ve been talking to the school system and they have some ideas,” Steglitz said. “But at this point, since we have not determined any sites that we’re necessarily going to move forward with studying, we’ve been asked by them not to make those sites publicly available at this point.”
The grant has an end date of June 30, 2014. Steglitz said the construction would have to be completed by then under the requirements of the grant.
The grant requires a $484,390 local match, but city officials have found a way around making a cash contribution. It’s the city’s intent to partner with AAPS and the developer to provide the site and financing required for the match, so the city’s contribution will be $18,590 in staff time.
Steglitz said the council will be asked at a future meeting to approve agreements with AAPS and the site developer. He revealed at Monday’s meeting that Wind Products Inc., based in Brooklyn, NY., is the private developer the city expects to provide the local match for the project.
