After an early morning breakfast in Stav Hall and calisthenics in the skoglund parking lot, we bustled across a budding corn field to reach our destination.  Three buff ladies grinning fierce smiles into the sun and one averagely strong man in overalls trailing behind.  We knew our powers of intimidation were mighty, but we were there to help. 

It was Saturday, May 15, just after 8:00 in the morning and were were standing in knee the knee high grasses in the field behind Ytterboe hall. There, we met St. Olaf director of factilicties Pete Sandburg, St. Olaf Dean Greg Keneser, RENew Northfield represenitives Bruce Anderson, Chris Ludewig, and  Ollie Byrum, and community members Craig and Ameeta Rice. Our goal was to assemble and raise a 40 meter tall wind monitoring tower that would measure wind direction and speed for six months. The data provided by this tower will determine wheather the field behind Ytterboe is a suitable location for a potential wind turbine.  Pete Sandberg has applied for a grant through Xcel energy for a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine that would generate 25% of St. Olaf’s power. The turbine under consideration is manufactured by a Danish company, NEG-Micon. (For more information about the turbine, click here.)

Our task on May 15th was the first step in installing such a structure.

First, we had to hand drill stakes into the ground for the guy wires that would support the tower. Here, you can see the bustling muscles of Elise & Britt.  Matt & Milena prefered the oxen-like form and cranked away:

Meanwhile, assembly of the 40 meter (230 feet) tower was taking place. Sections had to be bolted together, and the anemometers and wind vanes had to be attached. Matt mysteriously blends into the group of men and their hats.  This appears to be a moment of drills, tape and confused grunting. 

The guy wires on the south side were attached to the gin pole and a winch, which first pulled up the 10 meter gin pole. The tower remained on the ground. And the circus remained out of town.

Wires on the east and west were then attached to the stakes. Britt and Elise tightened al the nuts with drills.  This task took an extreme amount of concentration as is visible by Elise's fierce look of determination.

Then we slowly began to raise the tower with the winch, tightening the guy wires as we went. When the tower reached 45 degrees, we attached the final wires, on the north side of the tower. In this picture, Bruce Anderson explains the process to Britt.

When the tower was up (7 hours later), minor adjustments had to be made to the wires so that the tower would stand straight. The data logger was installed at the base. It will collect 10 minute averages of wind speed for the next 6 months in this location.

 For more photos, taken by Craig and Ameeta Rice, visit:

http://www.uniyatra.com/about/gallery/2004-wind/