Washington County Technical High School is the new home to a 1.8-kilowatt wind turbine that will begin generating power starting with winds as low as 7 mph, says the Herald-Mail.

Jeffrey Stouffer, principal of Tech High School, told the news source that students did some of the design and all of the research for the wind turbine.

Pre-engineering students will be able to wirelessly monitor the wind speed and the amount of kilowatt energy produced.

"It's just a neat process," Stouffer told the paper. "To take wind and send power into the high school's Pre-engineering area to use - it's just really cool technology. I've never seen this before."

Residential wind turbines are becoming more of a trend in the United States. Brighton Car Wash and Detail Center located in Naperville, Illinois, recently was granted approval by city officials to build a wind turbine on its one-acre facility, says the Chicago Tribune.

The paper says this wind turbine will be one cog in the company's renewable energy plan. In 2009, the car wash added a $60,000 solar system that saves the company roughly $1,200 a month in energy costs.