Southwestern U. Buys Wind Power to Light Campus

Southwestern University has hammered out an agreement to get all of its electrical power from Texas wind sources, potentially for the next 18 years.

According to news reports about the deal, the university says it is the first in Texas to get all of its electrical power from renewable sources. Southwestern is not a huge institution; the announcement about the deal says that the college consumes as much energy as about 450 homes, which is roughly the capacity of one large wind turbine.

Southwestern’s president, Jake B. Schrum, signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment a year ago, and the wind-power deal helps the college toward the goal of climate neutrality.

Of course, the power is not coming directly from those turbines. The university is still getting its power from the grid. Richard Anderson, vice president for fiscal affairs at Southwestern, told the Austin-American Statesman that the university was paying more for the wind power compared with current electrical rates, but that he expected those rates to rise, producing savings for Southwestern in the long run.