Dec 30 2010
The Rodbaston Campus in the South Staffordshire College has just received approval from the Government’s Planning Inspectorate for installing wind turbines, which would be the first in the West Midlands area. It would also be the first educational institute to be powered by a wind energy project. Two wind turbines of 2 MW capacity with a height of 126 m would be constructed in the Rodbaston Campus by Wind Direct.
According to Frances Karki, Wind Direct’s Chief Operating Officer, the company was happy that this project had been approved. She revealed that this first wind power project in West Midlands would also aid in achieving a specialized curriculum to be developed at the college.
Graham Morley, Chief Executive Principal of South Staffordshire College, commented that this was exciting news for both the students and the college. They had conducted a widespread consultation with the domestic stakeholders for assessing the project. He also mentioned that this turbine would provide several students every year added skills and knowledge about a low carbon future in the UK. He revealed that their college was the only college in Wales and England to achieve both Ecocampus and ISO 14001 accreditation. He further divulged that he had signed an agreement with a specialist environment services provider earlier this year for facilitating the introduction of a Sustainability and Environmental Management course. He was also excited that the Marketing Team had been awarded the FE Gold award for Sustainability from the College Marketing Network.
Construction work on the campus would begin by Spring 2011, and would be completed by the Autumn of 2011. On January 5th 2009, South Staffordshire College implemented higher education infrastructure in Staffordshire uniting expertise and resources from Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock Chase and Rodbaston. The college provides both academic and vocational courses to students from ages 14 onwards with an employee list of 1300 staff. Its student body has crossed 20,000. The college would form robust connections with other local education centers, close the skills gap in the domestic economy and provide a well equipped student body ready to face the world in South Staffordshire and beyond.
Source: http://www.windprospect.com