“It involves all BWL electric customers in Lansing, East Lansing and in surrounding areas,” Serkaian said. “But it has no impact on electric bills whatsoever. It’s just an addition to the BWL’s renewable energy portfolio.”

BWL has explored other renewable energy resources, such as solar and hydroelectric power, but it will be BWL’s first time using wind energy.

A new partnership with Exelon Wind eventually will enable BWL to generate electricity from eight wind turbines in Gratiot County, which is about 40 miles north of Lansing.

Agriculture, food and resource economics professor Eric Wittenberg said the wind turbines are useful because they use natural wind power as a source to generate energy.

The wind pushes air flow in a turbine, Wittenberg said, and pressure changes cause the turbine’s “wings” to rotate. That rotation turns a gear box in a generator, which generates power.

Although it sounds simple, Wittenberg said before now, there were a number of challenges in Lansing that might have prevented the generation of wind energy.

“You can’t put a turbine anywhere,” Wittenberg said. “There might not be enough wind in a given place. The community might not want it near their homes, or on land — there are zoning issues. There’s even migrational issues with birds. If a turbine isn’t placed strategically, it can end up killing a lot of birds.”

While there are some speed bumps with adding turbines to an area, Wittenberg said the environmental benefits are numerous.

“With a nuclear power or coal fire plant, it might be cheaper, but we don’t always analyze the true costs of nuclear energy and coal,” Wittenberg said. “Turbines are renewable. With other forms of energy, you’re polluting the air with carbon dioxide emissions and (will have to) clean mercury out of lakes.”

While BWL doesn’t power the university, MSU officials are exploring the possibilities for wind energy on campus, Director of Campus Sustainability Jennifer Battle said.

“Right now, we’re working on a wind study measuring wind speeds,” Battle said. “Back in 2002, we commissioned a similar study that proved there wasn’t enough wind in the area to have an economically viable wind turbine.”

But with technology changes in recent years, Battle said MSU is starting to revisit the idea.

“There’s a meteorological tower that measures the speed of wind, so we’ll see,” Battle said. “We can’t conclude anything at the moment, but it could be a potential opportunity for campus.”