James Madison University

Wind for Schools Program Informational Meeting Notes

Introductions (5 min)

We had many schools represented.  Each attendee introduced their school and told a little about the status of their intended wind project.  Some had submitted proposals to the state for funding, some have raised funds and are ready to put up a turbine, and others are just in the planning stages or just interested in learning more.

Overview of program at JMU (10 min)

JMU will be the Wind Application Center for the Virginia Wind for Schools program.  This means that at JMU we will be integrating more wind energy education in the curriculum.  A wind minor is being developed. 

On the k12 side of things, we will look to install at least 4 turbines at schools each year.  This year, due to the state funding opportunity, funding for the first few projects should not be an issue.  In the future, JMU will help to find funding to cover a majority of the cost of the turbine.  JMU aims to adopt museums and aquaria in the state as Auxiliary partners as well as affiliate members in those schools that already have turbines installed. 

Lastly we would like to employ a sister school model in which each school with a turbine getting installed works with a sister school that maybe does not have the money or the wind resource to put up a turbine.  These schools would get a 20m met tower with anemometers through our loan program. 

 Review affiliate and ISE program – sign up (10 min)

We would like to add all informal science institutes in the state to the network as Auxiliary Members and also invite all schools that already have a wind turbine installed as an Affiliate Member.  Auxiliary members would be encouraged to install wind turbines and share data to increase education on wind energy and also provide space to hold regional teacher training workshops.  Affiliates would be eligible for the teacher training and data sharing and archiving that all the other wind for schools schools receive. These applications will be available online very soon.  Below is a list of the known and/or interested potential Auxiliary and Affiliate members

Auxiliary   Affiliate
Science Museum of Virginia Gereau Center
Science Museum of Southwestern Virginia   Virginia Beach Public Schools 
Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center William Fleming HS
Nauticus     Salem HS
  Spotsylvania Technical Center

*Please contact Remy at 540-568-8768 or luerssrm@jmu.edu if you would like to be added to one of these lists  

Schools discuss proposed projects (15 min)

Some schools that were further along elaborated on their projects.  Some schools identified possible sister schools that would like to put up a met tower for the first year.  A list of the schools that were represented at the meeting was annotated with which type of project they would be interested in at this time:

Turbine Ready Met Tower Interest   
Luray HS    North Branch
Northumberland MS/HS     Staunton River MS (work with Gereau)
Albemarle Public Schools  
Central HS  
Harrisonburg HS  
*Please contact Remy at 540-568-8768 or luerssrm@jmu.edu if you would like to be added to one of these lists

Open discussion and sign up for program(20 min)

Small Wind Installer Informational Meeting Notes

Overall the workshop was well received.  Loren Pruskowski of Sustainable Energy Developments (SED) spoke to the workshop attendees about the need for more installers to be trained to help meet the installation demand for ARRA wind rebate projects.  Roles of the DMME, JMU, and SED were briefly discussed.  Additionally Loren spoke about the need for current installers and potential installers to work together to efficiently meet this demand.  Installers in the room demonstrated a sincere desire to help the market and many demonstrated a high level of professional capability.

Attendee's

  • Installers working with customers
  • Installers already having installed machines
  • People in solar field
  • Others interested in potentially becoming installer, and others just simply interested

Identified "Needs" and key Points of Installer Meeting

  • Need to identify requirements of becoming a licensed contractor in the state of Virginia
  • Need to put list of eligible turbines on website
  • Several installers offered their projects to host a workshop
  • Need to develop comprehensive of list of  local wind ordinances throughout Virginia and defining characteristics
  • Provide wind map to all installers

Virginia Community Colleges Informational Meeting Notes

AGENDA

  1. Introductions (5 min)
  2. Overview of state of large wind farm development in Virginia and need for workforce (10 min)
  3. Greg Johnson, Amatrol – Overview of what they offer (10 min)
  4. Each college give overview of their intended program (15 min)
  5. Open discussion (20 min)

Rebate Program Informational Meeting Notes

  1. Introductions (5 min)

    2. All rebate participants introduced themselves and gave any details about their project that they had.  We asked each participant to identify if they had selected an installer or system yet.

  2. Review of rebate program terms and conditions (5 min)

    3. Ken Jurman of DMME was present and briefly went over the terms and conditions of the program.  It was discussed that those who entered into the rebate reservation process during the second opening of the website have not been officially approved yet.  We will continue to work with all projects (approved or awaiting approval) to develop the projects.

    The deadline for installing projects was also discussed.  Ken Jurman told us that the 180 day deadline is going to be very flexible (within a reasonable timeline) for wind projects.

  3. Discuss JMU process (10 min)

    4. 75 potential wind projects, JMUs priority is to create a qualified installer base to help you all to develop and install your intended projects.  So the next step for JMU will be to assign each project an installer based on location and system to be installed.  We will need to gather some more project details from each participant in order to best fit your project with an installer.  We will be in touch soon about this.  We appreciate your patience as we work through this process.  In the meantime, if you have an installer selected please send us that information so that we may work with them to determine if they are qualified.

  4. Open up for questions (20 min)