Bergey WindPower Company, a world leader in manufacturing and development of residential wind turbines for homes, farms, and small businesses, is the field trip destination for the Engineering Club on May 2, said club president James McManus.

The company is located at 2200 Industrial Blvd. in Norman, and is a small family-owned company that employs about 30 people.

Only members of the Engineering Club who have signed up are allowed to go, McManus said.

This trip is extra exciting for the club because no current member has visited the facility yet, except for a faculty member, McManus said.

Bergey WindPower’s Sales and Customer Service manager, Britton Rife, gave a brief explanation of the company.

“Our patented ‘Bergey Design’ revolutionized the industry with its radically simple construction of only three parts,” she said. “The turbines are the top selling wind-turbines around the world in our industry.

“The turbines work by collecting wind energy and converting it to electricity. The production from the turbine is then made electrically compatible with the utility and fed directly into the household.”

According to the Small Wind Certification Council, the Bergey Excel 10 and Excel 6 turbines outrank their competition in all three categories of rated annual energy, rated sound level, and rated power.

Bergey does not compete with the much larger utility-scale turbine industry that features companies like General Electric and Vestas.

McManus said students will be at the Norman location for two hours and will learn about the roles engineers play at the company, and how the technology of the turbines works.

“We will be talking to their engineers about how they go about designing and building their products, as well as project management and future careers in engineering.

Engineering Club membership is open to anyone willing to sign up and pay $15 in annual dues, McManus said.