UD's wind turbine at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes produced 5.1 million kilowatt hours (kwh) of energy during its first year of operation. That was enough to power the seaside campus, with a surplus of 1.3 million kwh — sufficient for about 120 homes — sent to the Lewes Board of Public Works for use by the city's homeowners. The turbine serves as a platform for research, including a study that looks at its impact on area birds and bats, a corrosion study to assess how the salty coastal air affects the machine, and a project investigating wear and tear on its drive train. Such research is building the U.S. knowledge base on the viability, cost-efficiency and impacts of wind energy. Plus, UD and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are working toward testing commercial wind turbines off the Delaware coast. A test site in Delaware could mean significant jobs in wind-energy manufacturing and engineering.