A $5.7 million wind farm is planned on campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

U. of I. trustees will vote today on hiring an architect to design and build three 300-foot turbine towers on the university's south farms.

"We believe it will be one of the first, if not the only, multi- unit utility-scale wind turbine installations [on a college campus] in the United States," said Matt Malten, the U. of I.'s sustainability coordinator.

For now, it's planned that the propeller-driven turbines would produce 1.5 megawatts each. The combined 4.5 megawatts would supply slightly less than 3 percent of the university's energy needs.

But by the time they're built, the turbines likely will pack more power, thanks to technological advances, Malten said.

"We've talked to a number of manufacturers, and they say that when the time comes, the standard unit may be greater than 1.5 megawatts," he said.

Owing to high demand, manufacturers say the university may not get its turbines until after 2007. "They prefer to sell to large wind farms, like the one in McLean County," Malten said.

That installation, on 21,000 acres east of Bloomington, will have up to 267 turbines pumping out 400 megawatts.

OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN

Student money is going into the U. of I. project -- $300,000 from a "clean energy technology fee" of $2 a semester approved by student government in 2003.

The student contribution is "symbolic" but was instrumental in securing a $2 million grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation, Malten said. The university is picking up the balance of the $5.7 million project.

More power from wind means less from the burning of fossil fuels. But the wind farm will generate not just clean electricity but also opportunities to learn, Malten said.

Students and faculty from engineering and agriculture are interested in doing research based on the new system. And the

U. of I. extension office will bring in farmers and other landowners to teach them about the impacts of wind farming.

"The footprint is very small," Malten said. "You can farm right up next to them."

gwisby@suntimes.com