Drexel purchases wind power: demand for pollution-free power is growing nationwide. (Update).

In July, Drexel University (Philadelphia) became the proud owner of a 220-foot-tall wind turbine with the energy output of about 4 million kilowatt hours a year--just about the amount of energy required to power 500 Pennsylvania homes. With nearly 10 percent of its total energy usage being generated by wind energy, Drexel now leads the country's universities in percentage of total electricity supply provided by wind energy.

Drexel President Constantine Papadakis has lost no time pointing out that a cutting-edge position in alternative energy generation is what Drexel is all about: "Our university takes pride in applying tomorrow's technologies today," he recently announced. "This is a great decision from an environmental standpoint. The bottom line is: You get clean energy. The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is equivalent to planting 350,000 trees in the area."

Drexel's purchase brings the number of Pennsylvania colleges and universities purchasing wind power to 26, the most of any state in the country But the commitment to pollution-free electricity by higher ed institutions in the state is only part of a larger movement nationwide. In a recent article in the July/August issue of Mother Jones magazine, it was revealed that wind power is now experiencing a full-blown boom. According to the story, energy firms spent a record $1.7 billion last year on U.S. wind projects, increasing nationwide wind power capacity by some 60 percent and providing enough additional energy to provide electricity to one million homes.

Through a five-year agreement with Community Energy, Inc., a PA-based green electricity marketer Drexel's wind power will be generated by a windmill farm in western Pennsylvania until the spring, when the university will switch over to power from the Pocono Wind Farm, now under construction outside Scranton. Papadakis discloses that the school will spend about $400,000 a year for the wind energy. In Pennsylvania, wind energy costs about 9 to 9.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, 2 to 3 cents more than current energy generation methods cost. But Papadakis believes that is a small price to pay for the environmental benefits of wind energy.

"We pride ourselves in teaching our students to be good citizens as well as good professionals," he say, "In this particular case, we are providing the example of a good corporate citizen."