Colby ? A center in western Kansas is participating in a national effort to test small-scale wind turbines.

A subcontract award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory will be used to create the High Plains Small-Wind Turbine Test Center, which will be located at the Northwest Kansas Research and Extension Center just outside Colby.

Test centers also will be in Texas, Utah and New York.

The focus of the research will be residential and commercial scale turbines that produce no more than 50 kilowatts of electricity. The goal is to offer something akin to a certification rating that can be used by the companies that manufacture the turbines.

The Hays Daily News reported that consumers also will be able to review certifications to see how the turbines perform and how they stand up.

Initially, Hays-based Midwest Energy looked into building its own test center after having trouble finding the type of information that would help customers determine what type of equipment to buy. But then the utility learned federal money might be available.

Midwest spokesman Bob Helm said the utility will build a power line from the turbine test center to its transmission lines in Colby and will purchase the electricity produced.

Developers hope that money from the electricity produced will sustain the test center’s operations.

“We were looking at something like that before because we are hearing a lot of folks who want to set up a turbine on their farm,” Helm said of the project’s genesis.

Several other groups are involved with the Kansas center, including Colby Community College, where the test center staff will be located, and the Wind Applications Center at Kansas State University.

Kansas State’s role will be to set up the instruments to measure turbine performance. The test center also will give wind engineering students the chance to work with small turbines.