06:11 PM EDT on Tuesday, May 30, 2006

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer

WEST WARWICK -- Though relatively far from the Rhode Island coast, the modest cafeteria at Deering Middle School offers impressive vistas, particularly on stormy nights when trees and plants on the 10-acre hilltop campus sway violently in the breeze.

School officials hope that same wind will one day push a turbine that could generate enough inexpensive electricity to power Deering, West Warwick High School and the adjacent town-owned Civic Center and ice rink."It's something we ought to look into," Supt. David P. Raiche said recently. "If you ever stand on that hill enough you know it's a windy spot. Common sense tells you there may be some merit to it."

The School Department, which is drafting an application to the state Energy Office for a $25,000 grant to research the idea, says a wind turbine could cost $1.5 million.

It requires a consistent breeze of 12 mph for the turbine to do its job. If the school site is found to meet that basic criterion, the School Department would make a technological feasibility study, research potential environmental impacts, examine the expected financial benefits and consult with nearby residents.

The project, which would be a first among Rhode Island school districts, is not without precedent in a state with aging schoolhouses that incorporate little energy-saving technology.

In Warwick, solar power is generating electricity in several school buildings. And with Governor Carcieri aggressively promoting wind energy, Portsmouth Abbey, a Catholic boarding school, has purchased a Danish-made Vestas V47 wind turbine. The 241-foot-high machine cost the school about $800,000, on top of a $450,000 grant from the state Renewable Energy Fund. It was installed in March.

Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, said the association has tapped the state Department of Education and a Massachusetts-based nonprofit group to help draft so-called green construction standards for Rhode Island schools.

They will soon dispatch a "circuit rider" to visit school districts to assist in long-term facilities planning and energy management, and to review architectural designs.

Led by the School Department's director of property services, Kenneth Townsend, West Warwick has been searching for ways to reduce energy costs for years.

When Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse bought the Royal Mills, along the Pawtuxet River, school officials asked if nearby Horgan Elementary School could be powered by hydroelectric power from the mill. (The idea went nowhere.)

More recently, the School Department commissioned an architect to design a solar-powered science and outdoor center that would be built behind Deering and used to educate students in environment-friendly construction. Inside the building, students would be able to monitor real-time energy usage on computers. (The building has been designed but not funded.)

Last year, a power company donated $200,000 worth of energy-saving lighting equipment to the district in exchange for an electricity contract. The company hopes to recoup its investment by charging the schools an annual energy fee based on past usage, while reducing the energy the schools actually consume.

This summer, the district will use a rebate from National Grid to change the light fixtures in Deering, an upgrade expected to decrease energy bills by $30,000 a year.

"We need to save money and one of the best ways we can is attacking energy costs," said school board member Thomas V. Iannitti Jr., the chief proponent of the wind turbine.

Townsend said preliminary research on the wind turbine is only mildly encouraging. A quick glance at wind charts on Google Earth showed the school property receiving just enough wind to justify the investment.

"We're in the range, but at the very bottom," Townsend said. "It's not like we're sitting on a shoreline."

But Townsend is charging ahead. He recently exchanged e-mails with Brother Joseph Byron, of Portsmouth Abbey. He has also contacted Lorax Energy Systems, a company that evaluates potential wind farm sites and provides related services, and Henry duPont, a Block Island resident who sells wind turbines.

The West Warwick School Department spends $360,000 annually on electricity, and Townsend says a wind turbine could significantly reduce that bill.

"It's a priority because it saves money," he said. "This is nothing but a positive thing if we have the wind to support it."