After more than six years, the wind farm project for Fort Hays State University is finally “off the ground.”

During a Friday morning news conference, university president Dr. Ed Hammond announced the signing of a contract for two wind turbines with Vestas, the world leader in wind turbine manufacturing.  This will be the sixth Vestas project in Kansas.

“We expect the system to become operational by late June in 2013, and we are projecting annual savings on our energy bill in the range of $600,000 to $1 million, ” said Hammond.

Dr. Hammond and Michael Estes, a vice president with HTWN, signed an assignment agreement at the news conference conveying the rights and responsibilities of turbine ownership to FHSU.  Harvest the Wind Network LLC, headquartered in Greensburg, is a national leader in turnkey distributed wind energy solutions.

The president said the final cost of the project was estimated at $8.8 million to $9 million.

The two turbines will be located on land leased from a private citizen, near Golf Course Road and 210th Ave, southwest of campus.  The project includes 3.5 miles of underground transmission line from the turbines to the Akers Energy Center on campus.