Next on the list are the environmentally-friendly Hanging Gardens of Gore Hall.

Don’t believe us? With our track record, we don’t blame you. Nonetheless, we’re being honest and we can prove it.

Visit the UD Wind Turbine web site right now and you can see live video from the construction site.

When completed, it will stand 400 feet high from the tower base to the top of the blade at peak rotation. A typical 2-megawatt turbine provides enough emissions-free electricity to power about 500 average homes, so UD’s turbine is expected to provide clean, carbon-free electricity for the entire Lewes campus. At times, the turbine will generate more than enough power for the campus; the excess will be fed to the electric grid for use by others in Lewes.

UD’s Wind Turbine [www.ceoe.udel.edu]

“not just traditional flips”

Delaware the Musical

Joining us on top of Mt. Wildly Successful is the University of Delaware’s Wind Turbine. Construction is about to begin on a 2-megawatt land-based wind turbine at UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes, and the public can follow its progress on UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) new wind turbine Web site.

The site provides background on the project, a detailed timeline, and updated news and events. Visitors will also be able to see images of the turbine’s installation once construction begins in early March. The turbine is expected to be in operation and generating electricity in April.

And if that isn’t awesome enough, the turbine will stand approximately 400 ft. high from its base to the apex of its blade at peak rotation, and each of the turbine’s three blades will be approximately 140 feet long.

Artist's depiction of how UD's wind turbine will appear, as seen from in downtown Lewes.

UD’s Wind Turbine [ceoe.udel.edu]

The final installment of the 2009 Ocean Currents Lecture Series, hosted by the University of Delaware College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE), will focus on the sharks of Delaware Bay. 

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 20, at UD’s Lewes campus on Pilottown Road.  It will provide attendees the opportunity to learn about some of the ecological services that sharks provide to the region, as well as problems facing these sharks including lack of human flesh upon which to feed.

While we’re sure that this lecture will be fascinating (we had no idea that there were sharks in the Delaware Bay), this post is frankly just another excuse for us to photoshop sweet sharks next to UD’s Sharp Research Vessel (see photo).

The good, the bad and the ugly: Sharks of Delaware Bay [ceoe.udel.edu]
Tracy Jordan [nbc.com/30rock]

While the UD Alumni Relations Blog has no clue what a “memorandum of understanding” is, we’re just going to assume there was a piece of papyrus that was signed with a quill pen, sealed with hot wax and stamped by UD President Harker’s ring.  This may be completely incorrect, but that’s how we imagine it.

Before our imagination runs away with this post, let’s turn over the journalism to the professionals at our sister site UDaily:

In addition to providing carbon-free electricity generation, the project will enhance University research in areas such as turbine corrosion, avian impacts, and policy issues related to renewable energy. A coastal turbine also enables many types of research needed to develop ocean turbines.

UD President Patrick Harker said, “We’re thrilled to join with Gamesa on this project that will bring renewable energy to the Lewes campus and support UD’s cutting-edge research in sustainable technologies.”

The project is inspired by the work of UD College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) professors Jeremy Firestone and Willett Kempton, who have studied the amount of power supplied by Delaware’s offshore winds as well as public reaction to and policies for wind-energy use.

Also today (7/28) there will be a lecture at the UD Lewes campus on the results of a study of the feasibility of putting a turbine on campus. We’ll bet you $500 that the study found that it was indeed feasible.  Any takers?

UD, Gamesa reach agreement to install coastal wind turbine [udel.edu/udaily]
Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica [gamesacorp.com]
UD College of Earth, Ocean and Environment [www.ceoe.udel.edu]

Now the UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) is taking steps to harness the force of the wind.

"Going to take pollution down to zero."

The CEOE’s next Ocean Currents Lecture, to be held Tuesday, July 28, at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of Cannon Lab at the Lewes campus will explore the idea further.

The lecture, “A Wind Turbine at the UD Campus in Lewes: An Opportunity for Research, Education, and Public Service,” is free and open to the public.

The talk will discuss the results of an study on the feasibility of placing a turbine on the campus, the next steps in the project and what its development could mean for the campus and the community.

If the turbine is built, UD will have the powers of earth, fire, wind and water, leaving heart as the lone missing piece of the puzzle.

UD Center for Energy & Environmental Policy [ceep.udel.edu]
UD lecture to explore land-based wind turbine on Sharp Campus [sussexcountian.com]
UD College of Earth, Ocean and Environment [ceoe.udel.edu]