Nearly $40,000 from a quasi-governmental agency will help the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine fund a study to examine the possibility of using wind power on Tufts' Grafton campus.
Last month, the Massachu-setts Technology Collaborative (MTC) announced the awarding of a $39,760 grant that will help the Cummings school decide whether to build wind turbines on its campus.
The study will determine both the technical and economical feasibility of wind turbines on the campus, an undertaking that includes gaining approval from appropriate agencies and boards.
Cummings requested the grant as part of a "greening-the-campus initiative" at the Grafton campus, a plan to make "as small a carbon footprint as possible," said Tom Keppeler, associate director of public relations for the Grafton campus.
The school is considering several ways to try to reduce its environmental impact, Keppeler said, including the implementation of fuel-cell technology, solar energy and wind energy, as well as better methods of composting animal waste. Cummings also considered a humane and ecologically friendly farm.
Among these proposals, projects focused on developing a sustainable farm and on generating power are the "furthest along," Keppeler said. "Wind seemed to be the lowest-hanging fruit."
The grant comes after a 2006 alternative energy feasibility study, funded by Cummings and the Tufts Climate Initiative at a cost of $16,000, indicated that wind power harnessing might be viable at Cummings. The study estimated that wind power could support 14 to 48 percent of the school's energy consumption.
"That is a large number and definitely something we would be interested in," Keppeler said.
The same study also indicated that the Grafton campus did not have any flat rooftops large enough to make installing solar panels economically feasible, and that drilling for geothermal power would be reasonable only if buildings were already being renovated for other purposes.
The study said combined heat and power, or cogeneration, which utilizes heat from power generation, could be technically and economically practical, too; it noted, though, that additional study of its implementation at the school would be necessary.
Meanwhile, Cummings and the MTC are still settling on how and when the money will be transferred to the veterinary school and how the study will be conducted.
"We expect to finalize the paperwork for the grant any day now and will get to work on the study right away," said Betsy Isenstein, energy manager in the Facilities department, in an e-mail. "If the wind turbine proves feasible it could be a wonderful opportunity for Tufts to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and save energy dollars."
MTC spokesperson Emily Dahl said that her agency's programming staff accepted Cummings' grant request because it had a "strong project team" and a "well thought-out project with some possibility of success."
"The location of the project at an educational institution was a factor in our choosing it," Dahl told to the Daily in an e-mail.
The grant comes from the MTC's Renewable Energy Trust, funded by surcharges imposed on customers of Massachusetts electricity companies. The MTC was established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
One issue raised by the possibility of wind turbines is the structures' potential to kill birds.
Gretchen Kaufman, a professor at Cummings, has voiced concern over the topic.
"We would pay close attention to that issue" and "monitor the impacts on any local wildlife" if wind turbines were built on campus, said Kaufman, who is chair of the "Greening Grafton" committee at Cummings.
She said, however, that those concerns are not "enough to derail anything." She described the wind project as "terrific."
Keppeler said that bird mortality is an issue to which Cummings assigns great importance and that the concern would seriously affect whether the turbines are constructed.
Another initiative at the school aims to create a sustainable, energy-neutral farm that uses improved soil management practices and employs more humane animal practices.
Cummings wants the project to serve as a model to other New England farms, which the school believes are being put out of business by corporate farms in the Midwest, Keppeler said. The model could potentially breathe new life into rural New England farming.
"We see that as the niche that will keep New England dairy farming around into the future," Keppeler said.
Cummings sought consultation on the sustainable farm from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the School of Engineering, as well as from student projects on energy efficiency.
The veterinary school is reaching out to foundations and corporations to see if support for the farm exists.
"Greening Grafton" originally began as an attempt to increase recycling in offices, hospitals and research labs on the Grafton campus.
The program then worked to reduce the veterinary school's environmental impact in other ways, such as through composting and trail cleanups.
Further initiatives include the installation of fluorescent light bulbs, the reduction of heat usage, refitted windows and energy-efficient upgrades to buildings.
"The facilities people are very conscious of energy use," Kaufman said.
