Electric Co-op Today

A Florida electric cooperative successfully teamed with a top youth leadership organization to help expose students in the co-op’s service territory to the science behind wind generation.

Students test their wind turbine designs during a 4-H National Youth Science Day Wired for Wind event in Florida. (Photo By: Peace River Electric Cooperative)

“There are not a lot of matches that go together as well as 4-H and electric cooperatives,” said Nell McCauley, chief marketing and member services officer of Wauchula-based Peace River Electric Cooperative.

After learning about the 4-H program’s annual National Youth Science Day project, PRECO decided to sponsor the program in its service territory. That enabled more than 1,500 students to join millions of young people across the United States for the Wired for Wind project.

“We had about 55 kits, but there was a lot more demand for them than what we had,” McCauley said. “So we came up with the idea for refills, which enabled teachers to provide the necessary parts to more students.”

With the addition of scissors, masking tape, rulers, paper cups and card stock for construction materials, the co-op eventually had enough supplies to offer the program for science students at five schools and at a local civic center in its service territory.

The co-op also furnished box fans for use by the classes to provide the wind power needed for students to test different wind turbine blade designs.

“Even some of the parents were really getting into the design process,” said Rob Beatty, a Hardee County High School science teacher. Participating teams of students measured the output of the turbines. Energy readings ranged from 0.2 volts to just over 1 volt.

“We got good buy-in from the schools,” said Mark Sellers, the co-op’s communications coordinator, adding that PRECO officials felt the project was a great way to express concern for the community.

“Budget cuts have made it really difficult for many schools to be able to pull together these types of projects,” said Sellers. “We’re going to continue to offer the program for schools as long as we have kits available.”

Tags: Consumer Outreach, Local Initiatives, Renewable Energy