In October of 2007, Grinnell College finalized an emmissions reduction commitment which includes a 3-4 megawatt wind turbine project. Such an installation should generate approximately 40% of the campus electricity needs.
In January 2007 construction on a 50kW turbine at the Conrad Environmental Research Area was completed. The turbine currently meets over 90% of the center's energy needs and offsets roughly 200,000 pounds of carbon per year.

View photos of the construction process

Low bandwidth video of turbine construction (2 MB)
High bandwidth video of turbine construction (14 MB)

In addition, Grinnell College is currently considering the possibility of meeting a significant portion of the campus energy needs via renewable wind energy generated from turbines near campus.

In August of 2005 President Osgood formed the EcoCampus Wind Feasibility Committee and charged this group of faculty, staff, and students to investigate the feasibility of constructing wind turbines to provide energy for campus. In January 2006 the group presented their recommendation to President Osgood and the Board of Trustees for consideration. The following month the college then commissioned Wind Utility Consulting, a private consulting firm, to confirm some of the committee's assumptions and further investigate the economics of utilizing wind energy for the college. The findings of these two groups were published in a final report in April of 2006. These findings were presented to the Board of Trustees Buildings and Grounds Committee on April 28th, 2006 and the construction of a 50 kW turbine at the Conrad Environmental Research Area (CERA) was commissioned.

In October of 2007, Grinnell finalized an emissions reduction commitment which included 3-4 megawatts of wind generation.

Initial Wind Report
Presented to the Trustee Building and Grounds Committee in April 2006.

Revised Final Wind Report
Presented to the Trustee Building and Grounds Committee in February 2007.