School Supply Vending Machines

Wind Power

ENGL 2311-207
TAMIUs engineering building with rooftop Sara Elena Flores Haynes
HAWTs. Tracy Nixon
Gabriella Gaona
Miguel Quiroz
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I. Abstract

Many students, including the engineering department, at Texas A&M International University
would agree that using wind turbines as a source of energy would not only cut financial costs,
but would also expand educational opportunities, and reduce pollution to the air of Laredo,
Texas. This paper is intended to propose a plan so that the University can lower the electricity
bill, which would add to the budget; thus, the students would benefit by the creation of more
educational opportunities. The solution to this problem is the implementation of wind turbines to
the tops of two buildings on campus. They would in turn lower costs and allow the college to
allocate funds toward other departments, such as the engineering department. The placement of
wind turbines on the roofs of universities has been successfully performed by other universities,
and TAMIU could be one of them as well. The wind turbines will be tremendously beneficial to
the University and TAMIU students.
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II. Wind Turbine Basis

In the late 1800s and early 1900s windmills were being utilized to pump water

and to grind grain. Since then, the windmill has been modernized into the wind

turbines we typically see today which are the following: vertical-axis wind turbines

(VAWT) and horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT). They are now utilized for the

conversion of kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. Following this, a generator

transforms this mechanical power into electricity to power buildings.

Both types of turbines consist of a blade, gear box, standard controls, base or

tower and interconnection equipment. The blades act like the wheels of train to achieve

the conversion of wind energy to rotational shaft energy. The gear box is the heart of the

turbines as it transforms mechanical energy into electricity. The base can be looked at as

the spine of the machine; without it, the machine, specifically the rotor and gearbox,

would not have any support to stay upright. The interconnection equipment act as the

arteries of the machine; they connect the energy supplied from the turbines to the main

grid of the buildings electricity. The standard controls are the brain of the machine.
One of the main differences between VAWTs and HAWTs is that the blades of a

VAWT is able to catch wind in any direction without directional orientation while

HAWTs must be directly facing the wind to catch the wind. In addition to the

differences, when the wind blows on the blades of a HAWT, all of them contribute to

energy production. In contrast to HAWTs, only a fraction of the blades in the VAWTs
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contribute to the production of torque. Also, the VAWTs may contain less components to

assemble; however, HAWT contain a pitch and yaw controls that can lessen damage to

the overall machine from too much wind turbulence.

Recently small scale wind turbines have become a trend; about 10,000 were sold last

year according to the American Wind Energy Association. Also, wind power produced

$7.3 billion a year in public health savings in 2015 by cutting pollutants that create smog

and trigger asthma attacks and other lung diseases, according to the Harvard School of

Public Health. Furthermore, TAMIU members of the engineering club showed great

enthusiasm for the addition of wind turbines to our university; 100% of them desire a

more hands on experience within their major. The fastest-growing job in America is

wind turbine technician, according to the Department of Labor; a future program could

grow educational opportunities in TAMIU. Also, an evaluation test was done and TAMIU

tested at a surface wind speed of 12.8 mph. As height increases, the wind speed would

also increase making the buildings of a TAMIU a perfect location for wind turbines.

Overall, wind energy would lower pollutant emission into our atmosphere, lower our

electric bill, and would enhance an engineer students qualifications and would better

prepare them for a future job in the real world after graduation.

III. Current Situation

The main issue at Texas A&M International University is the usage of electricity. Our

research leads us to discover that TAMIU consumes a copious amount of electricity.

Thus, the electricity bill is quite high. We discovered that the exact amount of electricity

used is 20,586,068 KW/H. The annual cost of the usage of this electricity is $1,507,120.

This cost is for the time period between September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016.
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A survey was conducted asking our peers and the engineering club various questions relevant to

our proposal. As you can see we asked questions such as how long are students utilize charging

stations and how long they tend use a study room. This is pertinent to our research because these

are just a fraction of the issue that causes TAMIUs electricity cost to be quite high. These are

issues because even if no one is using the charging stations around campus, it still requires

electricity to still be operational in case a student does need to use it. Using a study room is also

considered to be a problem because students are there for hours, therefore it consumes energy.

This issue is most prevalent during finals week because study rooms are available beyond normal

hours.

IV. Project Plan

There are a number of ways to cut back on energy costs at the university, however, there

is one way, if chosen, that will not only cut costs, but will also use green energy and provide an

outlet for more educational opportunities. Therefore, the solution is to install wind turbines. Not
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hundreds of them to build a wind farm, but just a couple to be able to provide electricity for

certain buildings. The first part of the strategy is to place ten horizontal wind turbines on top of

the new academic building currently being built, and six vertical wind turbines on top of Lamar

Bruni Vergara Science Building, in which the science and engineering classes are held. Minor

steps to this plan involves the purchasing, installation, and maintenance of the wind turbines.

This is a simple plan for running both the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Building and the new

academic building solely on wind energy generated from the turbines on their roof, but is also a

great research opportunity for the students at Texas A&M International University. By

investigating which turbine, horizontal or vertical, is the most efficient, the next part of the plan

would then be to expand the most resourceful turbines to the other buildings at Texas A&M

International University, which would eventually lead to the elimination of the electricity bill.

This proposal would benefit everyone at the University, including the science and engineering

students.

In doing the research on which types of wind turbines to purchase, the most efficient

wind turbines were the 250W JLM HAWT Energy turbines and the ZEfr VAWT turbines. The

Engineering club at TAMIU were asked to fill out a

survey for which turbine they preferred; however, it

was a tie for both the vertical and horizontal wind

turbines as shown in figure 1. The JLM Energy

turbines were manufactured in California and

together with the infrastructure, each one costs 3000

USD. They also have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Therefore, ten 250W JLM Energy

turbines would cost about 30000 USD, but would generate about 2.5 KW.
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Upon purchasing the wind turbines, the engineering students would install them with the

help of certified professionals. El Centro College in Dallas used Hydro-Star Energy L.L.C. to

assemble and install their wind turbines. On the new academic building for science and

engineering students, ten horizontal wind turbines will be placed in a row, along the north and

south edge of the rooftop. Due to the building being currently constructed, the rooftop can be

made with specific dimensions in order to provide the most efficient airflow and easy access for

maintenance. Based on the turbulence intensity level and the velocity above the roof,

according to Ledo, Cooper, and Kosasih (2011), it is concluded that at roof is the most

favorable shape (p. 1390).

Also, three vertical wind turbines will be placed on the roof of the Lamar Bruni Vergara

Science Building. The different placements and the different types of wind turbines will allow

the students to research the best method of using wind energy. Although this project starts off on

a small scale, the overall accomplishment is to expand the turbines to all the buildings at the

university and eventually go off the grid.

The engineering club and research students would then be in charge of maintaining the

wind turbines. Instead of having to pay professionals to come and check up on the turbines, the

students could do it for free. This would save the university even more money, while also

allowing the engineering students to learn with hands-on-experience.

All businesses want to save money where they can and a College University is no

different. By having students in the science and engineering fields operate and maintain thirteen

wind turbines on the roofs of the new academic building and the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science

building, Texas A&M International University would end up saving $1,728 USD annually, while
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also teaching students a new trade that is not yet taught here. After a couple years of continued

research on the costs and benefits on the wind turbines, more could be installed on the roofs of

the other buildings on campus. Thus, eventually running the school completely on wind power.

V. Costs & Benefits

TAMIU would have to invest $46,097 to add wind power to TAMIU. The bright

side is, according to Soriano from Bergey Windpower, it would take 3-5 years for

TAMIU to break-even due to 30% federal tax credit and state incentives. The 10

HAWTs would provide an estimated amount 0.11% of the total energy provided at

TAMIU. With enough information gathered from El Centro College, we were able to

calculate a rough probability that only the addition HAWTs which produce 0.82

KWH would save the university two cents per hour. This would also equal a savings
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of 1,728 USD from only the addition of HAWTs and a production of 37,325.6228

KWH in one year. A total of 2.7 KWH would be produced by the addition of all 10

HAWTs and 3 VAWTs. Thus, the savings and the energy production would increase.

HAWT @ 12 VAWT @ 12 mph Total kW @ mph

mph

.08228 (1) 0.633 (1) 0.71

0.8228 (10) 1.9 (3) 2.7

VI. Looking Forward

As researchers ourselves, we like to be thorough and look ahead into the future.

After installing the 2.5 KW turbines, we plan to add bigger ones for the same price and it

produces more energy. This is where our interview with Mr. Miller from Laredo

Community College comes into fruition. We approached Mr. Miller because we

considered him to be an expert in owning wind turbines since he is in charge of the wind

turbines located at LCC Fort Mcintosh campus. He explained to us that the type of wind

turbines used at LCC are the 10 KH, 110 feet by Bergey. He further explained how these

wind turbines worked. He told us that a wind current must be present and flow towards

the wind turbines. Once this occurs, the gears within the gearbox begin to rotate and send

and the energy collected down to a machine called the inverter. This inverter converts the
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energy collected into electricity LCC can use. Before the interview was concluded, we

asked where would be the best place to install one of these wind turbines at TAMIU. He

bestowed his knowledge and told us that the best place would be on the bank of TAMIU,

facing Lake Casa Blanca.

VII. Conclusion

Thank you for your time in reviewing our proposal and we hope you will consider supporting us.

If you have any other questions or concerns regarding what you have read please do not hesitate

to give us a call at (956)555-5555 or for more information, visit our website at

www.tamiugreendustdevils.weebly.com.
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References

Lugo, J. (2014, May 14). El Centro College finds lofty home for wind farm in downtown Dallas |
News. Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2014/05/13/el-centro-
college-finds-lofty-home-for-wind-farm-in-downtown-dallas

Small & Community Wind. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2017, from
http://www.awea.org/Issues/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=4592&navItemNumber=723

SolarStore.co. (n.d.). Roof Mount 3000w (3 kw) Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Retrieved from
https://www.solarstore.co/Roof-Mount-3000w-3-kw-Vertical-Axis-Wind-Turbine-
_p_13.html

SustenCorp. (n.d.). Zefr 250W - Small Wind Turbine. Retrieved from

http://www.sustencorp.com/zefr/

Wind Turbine Evaluation on TAMIU - Bergey Windpower [E-mail to T. Nixon]. (2017, March
31).