NORFOLK, Va. — Students at Ocean View Elementary School in Norfolk welcomed a new learning tool to their school campus Thursday morning.
“This design has been nicknamed Susie 4," said Carol Ann Curran, a teacher at Ocean View Elementary. "That just means that it’s fourth generation [design].”
Susie 4 is a 30-foot-tall micro wind turbine that will sit outside the school in Norfolk. It will help students collect real-time data from the wind and the sunlight.
“Since we are so close to the Chesapeake Bay, this is very interesting information for us and it makes us feel like scientists,” said one 5th-grade student.
The wind turbine comes from a partnership between the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundations and the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED).
“Today is Wind for Students," Dominion Energy Spokesperson Cherise Newsome said. "It’s an opportunity for students to learn about the science behind wind and wind energy.”
Newsome said it will also teach children about Dominion Energy’s project at sea: A massive offshore wind farm that will be 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
"So, literally it’s in the regional backyard of these students," Newsome said.
This is the second school in Hampton Roads to receive the wind turbine. In late November, New Horizons Regional Education Center in Newport News hosted a ribbon-cutting of its micro wind turbine, which will be used in lessons for high school students in a career and technical program.
“Our wind turbine is actually producing more wind power, percentage of wind power, than any of the other turbines that have been placed across the nation,” Curran said.