The wind turbine blades, which are made out of a composite overlaid by fiberglass with wood on the inside and also weather resistant, weigh 18,000 pounds and are 138 feet long. The blades would be part of a structure that would reach the height of over 200 feet. 

Both blades were donated by Suzlon Energy Limited, whose headquarters is in India and is ranked fifth leading supplier of wind turbine technology in the world.  The blades made their trek from Utah where the blades are no longer in service.

The reason that these blades were donated is because of a new program starting at LBCC starting this fall called the Mechatronics Technician program.  Students of this program will learn about electric and mechanical engineering, with an emphasis in green technology. The blades at LBCC will be used to study the technology of blades by the Mechatronics students, and by Physics, Engineering, and Engineering Drafting/CAD students.

Denis Green who will head up the Mechatronics Technician program here at LBCC said, “At this point they will just be opened and looked into and not really worked on, these are just to give students an idea of what they look like.”

With an arrangement between Columbia Gorge Community College and LBCC, students can get a degree after completing the Mechatronics program at LBCC and moving on to CGCC, to become a Wind Turbine Technician.

Fred Haynes an instructor at LBCC said, “We want to connect our students to as many highly technical fields as possible.”