Imagine Albert Lea with a wind turbine in town, visible from the freeways, right by the high school.

Riverland Community College hopes to build a wind turbine and a solar panel on Albert Lea High School land as part of alternative-energy curriculum it is developing.

The Albert Lea school board on Monday approved an easement for the college to build on district land. Now the district needs to get a permit for height clearance from the city. It is seeking one for 120 feet. The college intends to build the wind turbine and solar panel in the area between the college’s Gateway Building and Albert Lea High School’s parking lot, said Steve Bowron, dean of Riverland’s Albert Lea campus.

“There just happens to be a spot that has the best opportunity for wind,” he said.

Bowron said the wind turbine and solar panel will be used in training Riverland students in alternative energy and said they will be available to Albert Lea schools, too.

The wind turbine, solar panel and their installation have an estimated price tag of $180,000 to $200,000, Bowron said.

Construction is scheduled to start this summer, if the permit process goes well.

“We’re going to have a footprint for alternative energy in the college, in the community,” Bowron said.

What energy is generated by the turbine will go to the college.

The state Legislature last year appropriated about $260,000 to Riverland for alternative-energy education in Albert Lea. The curriculum springs out of the industrial maintenance and mechanics program and construction electrician program.

As the training program was being developed, the college discovered the need for a wind-turbine technician, and the Minnesota State College and Universities System awarded grants.

The college leveraged the legislative appropriation to win a $54,000 grant from the 360 Manufacturing and Applied Energy Center for Excellence to purchase equipment, such as machines for infrared images, vibration analysis and laser alignment. And the college got a Perkins grant for $48,500.

The college then won funding of $204,000 from Minnesota Renewable Energy Marketplace. Nicknamed MN Wired, it is an industrial consortium that seeks to transform the ag-dependent economies in southern and west central Minnesota. One emphasis is on renewable energy.

There are scholarships available for the wind-energy program’s first-year students. The students will use the turbine to learn maintenance and monitoring, Bowron said.math problems.