The MIT Bates Lab located in Middleton Massachusetts has recently completed the installation a 10 KW Wind Turbine. The wind turbine is operating and converting the kinetic energy of the wind into the mechanical energy by rotating shaft of the generator and producing electrical energy. In general, wind energy is most widely available, abundant and increasingly cost-competitive energy resource, making it a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels that potentially could harm our health and threaten the environment.
During a period of 3 years, beginning 2010-2013, the site wind potential was monitored out at MIT Bates Lab by a Meteorological Tower installed at that time. The MIT Wind Energy Projects in Action (WEPA) student group http://web.mit.edu/wepa/bates.html collected the data to verify the performance of wind energy generation. The installation of the Wind Turbine was in support of MIT’s commitment to technical innovation, environmental protection and clean energy.
The project was backed by a grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, awarded to Keystone Tower Systems of Somerville, MA, with MIT Bates Lab as a project participant.
MIT Bates Lab had expressed an interest in hosting the project while supporting Keystone’s automated tower manufacturing process. This process as demonstrated was able to simultaneously perform all of the rolling and welding operations needed to produce tubular steel towers, thus eliminating factory fabricated towers that are very expensive to ship to the project site. Keystone Tower Systems and MIT Bates Lab worked together with the project development which included many review and approval meetings with both the Middleton Town Boards and the Middleton Light Department.
Turbine Information
60 foot tower
- 25 foot rotor
72 feet to top of rotor
47 feet to bottom of rotor
13’x13’x4’ poured concrete foundation
10kW rated capacity
5,600 to 7,750 kWh annual energy production
50-130 rpm