Daily Illini published an article about wind turbine proposal: "Sustainability Committee struggles to pass wind turbine proposal" -- http://dailyillini.com/news/2008/10/23/sustainability-committee-struggle...

The lighting fixtures in the Psychology Building were changed from T-12 fixtures to T-8 fixtures as part of the ICECF Lighting Retrofit. In this facility, 2,571 fixtures were changed. This will allow an Annual kWh Savings of 393,534 hours. The L.S. project seperately funded 1,812 of the 2,571 fixtures. Occupancy sensors were also installed in the lighting retrofit of this building in order to provide further energy savings.

The lighting fixtures in the English Building were changed from T-12 fixtures to T-8 fixtures as part of the ICECF Lighting Retrofit. In this facility, 1,006 fixtures were changed. This will allow an Annual kWh Savings of 245,319 hours. The Simple Payback for changing the fixtures in the English Building is 1.31 years. Occupancy sensors were also installed in the lighting retrofit of this building in order to provide further energy savings.

The Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) posted this project summary online in September 2005. University Proposal to Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) for Turbine Purchase

• Proposes to install three, 1.5 MW wind turbines on the campus South Farms.
• Estimated total project capital cost will be $5,700,000.
• UIUC requests $2,000,000 in aid from the ICECF Renewable Grant Program to help establish this wind turbine project.
• The request is ~1/4 of the total cost ($1.4M), plus a two-to-one (2:1) match on the student fees ($600K).
• To date, the student initiated “clean energy fee” has raised and committed $300,000 for this project.
• Also, the university is investigating the possibility of an additional $250,000 in support directed by the Illinois Department of Community and Economic Opportunity through Vestas Wind Systems A/s.
• The UIUC is prepared to fund the remaining $3,000,000+ in capital costs.
• UIUC facilities will use 100% of the electricity generated by the wind turbines; the energy will feed directly into the University’s electric distribution system.
• The wind turbines will displace electricity generated by natural gas turbines at the UIUC Abbot Power Plant and purchased electricity, depending on the time of day and year.
• The three turbines will produce ~10,500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity (=2.7% of the total campus energy consumption).
• Location: South Farms area- Curtis/Windsor Rd on the north and Old Church Rd on the south and by Philo Rd on the east and First St. on the west.
• Wind turbines renewable energy production will annually eliminate the release of 6,700 tons of carbon dioxide, 32 tons of sulfur oxides and 15 tons of nitrogen oxides.
• The turbines generation capacity will be enough for the UIUC to voluntarily meet the State of Illinois’ Renewable Portfolio Standard through December 31, 2007.
• College of Engineering (Dean Ilesanmi Adesida) wrote a letter to ICECF supporting the project.
• Robert Easter wrote a letter to ICECF saying that ACES “is delighted to support the proposal to install wind turbines”.

In January 2005, the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) for Sustainable Campus Environment announced the wind turbine project for the installation of three wind turbines on the university campus.