Walking from the Commons to Clemens Hall can be a harrowing experience when the wind picks up. UB has made moves, however, to harness the wind, a phenomenon previously lamented by students and faculty alike as an inconvenience. While the wind might make it colder outside, the university has taken the lead in SUNY by buying wind energy as a source of clean power, ultimately contributing to the heating of UB facilities.
According to Business First of Buffalo, UB purchased the output of one of 20 wind-driven power generators in Fenner, N.Y., a town in Madison County, between Syracuse and Utica. The generators, which will supply UB with 2 percent of its total power usage, produce clean electricity, devoid of carbon dioxide emissions, the primary source of the greenhouse effect. In doing this, UB is ahead of Gov. George E. Pataki's "green and clean" executive order, which mandates that state facilities must meet 10 percent of their energy needs via renewable sources of electricity by 2005.
UB is the first in the SUNY system to use wind power, contributing to a power- conserving program that has saved more than $9 million in energy. The wind-generator output that the university purchased would be able to provide enough energy for 500 homes for one month. Not only is this program cost effective and innovative, it is environmentally sound and creates a precedent for more green programs. For example, UB and Buffalo could harness the wind that is more than abundant in this area, cutting fossil fuel consumption significantly.
Buffalo's windy climate is more than satisfactory to support such facilities, and they could flourish here, making Buffalo a leading center of alternative energy sources. As for whether they could physically fit in this area, the wind generators are 300 feet tall and placed in arrays; while gigantic, they would be no more an eyesore or inconvenience than the power line towers that mark the horizon of the Niagara frontier.
If UB is truly serious about its "Green Campaign," the administration ought to consider building wind generators for use by the campus. Since UB currently uses fossil fuels for 75 percent of its energy consumption, much can still be done to improve.
While the governor is also on the right track, he needs to be more specific with his renewable resources edict. Pataki's requirements for renewable sources of energy are "hydro, biomass, wind and solar," and his "10 percent by 2005" directive is unclear on what consequences would be befall a state facility that does not meet the standards. This problem will only magnify as Pataki raises the 10 percent limit to 20 percent by 2010.
Certainly it is a positive step to push for a reduction in fossil fuel consumption and dependency, but this initiative must be backed by bureaucratic muscle. The University at Buffalo Wind Turbine, as the Fenner generator is now called, should be an example to other state institutions; yet, if they choose not to heed this example, something must be held out as incentive.
Equally, institutions like UB, who have taken the initiative to implement these policies before the state deadline, should be given more than a fruit basket with the governor's seal on it. UB has shown that it is dedicated to an environmentally sound energy policy and ought to be appropriately rewarded.
The fact that UB has gone to such lengths, even at greater cost, to purchase clean energy bodes well for the future of an institution dedicated to building a reputation for being a progressive and modern university. Steps are still needed, however, to achieve both these greater goals and the immediate ones. UB should invest itself into wind energy technology to harness the natural resources that Western New York has in abundance, and the state should certainly come down harshly on those who would delay in such an investment.
