North Kingstown Chamber Of Commerce Hosts WindWinRI Competition

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI — The North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce's WindWinRI program is hosting Rhode Island's first regional High School Simulation Wind Turbine Competition with KidWind, an educational organization focused on teaching people about renewable energy, on Friday, May 7.

Student teams from Shea High School in Pawtucket, Block Island High School, and Exeter West Greenwich High School are participating in the regional competition that opened May 3rd and ends May 7th. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of the competition will be announced at a virtual ceremony on Monday, May 10 at 3 p.m.

“It is a rigorous and fun opportunity for students to learn about designing and building Wind Turbines, especially given the expected growth in Wind Energy jobs in our region here in New England," said Verda Jones, a pre-engineering teacher at Charles E. Shea High School in Pawtucket, in a statement.

In response to the pandemic, KidWind developed a virtual Wind Turbine Simulation Challenge that allows students to virtually build and compete. Using this program, students are able to learn about blade element theory and wind turbine aerodynamics and virtually construct and test wind turbines and farms.

"The WindWinRI wind turbine competition program has given students the chance to have hands-on, real world experience in the wind energy field," said Amy Biagioni, a science teacher at Exeter West Greenwich High School, in a statement. "Although they cannot compete in-person this year, the simulation software and virtual competition are bringing a new dynamic to what students are learning."

The top two teams from the regional competition will qualify to compete in the virtual National KidWind Challenge in June, which will give top performing teams the opportunity to compete alongside each other.