In our winter 2003-04 edition we highlighted the new Renewable Energy Research and Demonstration Center at the University's West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) in Morris. The demonstration center is designed as a community-scale project that combines local production and use of renewable energy with state-of-the-art research and demonstrations focusing on wind, biomass, biofuels, anaerobic digestion, and renewable hydrogen.

In the last week of February 2005, the center completed work on a 230-foot wind turbine, the only large-scale wind research instrument at a public university and the foundation for an innovative wind-to-hydrogen project. It will supply 5.6 million kilowatt-hours of power each year to the nearby Morris campus, supplying over half its annual electricity use.

"Our goal is to establish systems research to stimulate the renewable energy industry and provide a model for rural communities and agricultural producers to integrate renewable energy systems into their economies," said Greg Cuomo, head of WCROC. With the turbine now in use, they are off to a flying start.