Chatham Wind Tower

Several U.P. communities have looked into wind power recently as a possible inexpensive electricity source.

There’s a similar effort going on in Chatham.

The Michigan State University Extension has a farm there.

MSU staff recently put up a 200-foot-tall wind tower at the farm.

It’s measuring wind speed at 3 different heights, going up to 190 feet.

The researchers are looking for a long-term average speed at 190 feet up of 10 to 12 miles an hour.

That’s the minimum velocity needed to power a commercial-grade wind turbine.

They’ll record measurements once an hour, on the hour, every day for the next 2 years.

We went to Chatham as MSU was putting the finishing touches on the wind tower.

We’ll have more on the story for you as soon as we get UGN News back on the air.