St John Bosco Primary School

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St John Bosco Primary School in Erskine(Arasgain in Scottish Gaelic), is the first school within Renfrewshire, Scotland to have an on-site renewable energy device installed. The turbine was installed in March 2005 and is located on the summit of Craigend Hill. Full planning permission was granted for the installation of the wind turbine with approval from both the British Airports Authority (BAA) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The turbine is located on the summit of Craigend Hill (Ordnance Survey Grid 245847E / 670650N), situated SSW from the school.

The installation was managed by Renfrewshire Council.

The turbine is a 2.5kW unit that supplements the electricity supply within the school. The school has a a reversible electricity meter installed. Therefore, when the turbine is generating more electricity than the school is consuming, the meter will go backwards.

GRID CONNECT

The wind turbine was connected to a grid connect inverter which outputs 230Vac standard single-phase supply into the building, supplementing the current site grid supply. When the electricity demand is more than the output from the renewable system, the electricity required is drawn from the national grid. When the usage of electricity is less than the output from the wind system then excess electricity could be exported to the grid.

The advantage of a grid connected generating system, is that there is no need for a battery bank, saving on cost, installation, maintenance and space. There are other possible costs involved such as an annual connection charge and/or export tariff imposed by the electricity company for the right to grid connect. A grid connect system requires the agreement of the local electricity network, and this can involve additional costs.

EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS

Aside from the turbine being a clean energy provider, it is also used as an invaluable educational tool for both children and adults.

With renewable energy playing such an important role in Government Strategy, it is imperative that adults and children are educated on how to help reduce energy consumption and help reduce the human strain placed upon our environment through renewable energy technologies, with the turbine helping to achieve this.

The installation of the turbine provides an excellent learning opportunity for not only the children of the school, but also school pupils throughout Renfrewshire. As part of the project, a weather station and the corresponding software was installed within the school to provide readings that allow the pupils to monitor precipitation, sunlight, temperature and wind speed along with the affect that weather conditions have on the power output of the turbine. School pupils visiting the turbine have the opportunity to view the energy produced by the turbine in real time. This enables pupils to quantify energy production and consumption and give them a better understanding of energy issues. This invaluable resource enables the children to study their local environment through interactive learning.

With such a large number of children being educated on the technologies used in the wind turbine, it is inevitable that their parents will be informed and show an interest in the benefits of renewable energy. In doing so, the community will also learn of preventative measures that are discussed in the class room on climate change. The location of the turbine is in an ideal position for local community involvement. With the turbine being situated outside the school grounds, the community have unlimited access to view the turbine.