Michael R. Bloomberg’s vision for a gleaming skyline of rotating industrial machines whipping around the heads of millions of inhabitants must seem as bizarre as the latest avant-garde street theater performance. Nevertheless, the Big Apple is used to being the forerunner of creative thinking and innovative development. The difference of inventive public policy and practical civic solutions can be as large as the financial accumulation of wealth in this metropolis. The mayor is correct on one point on a principle of energy policy that is often lost. If you are going to utilize it, produce it, where you use it. The inherent problem with the alternative that Bloomberg offers is that the technology of industrial wind machines creates more problems than answers. This outdated and inefficient method of generating energy is vastly more expensive, fundamentally unreliable, and essentially worthless in producing meaningful electricity.
The myth that wind turbines are environmentally friendly is dispelled with every project that is built. Those who worship in the congregation of a “Green Doctrine” seldom display the intellectual integrity of their dogmas. Industrial scale wind generation is not benign nor is it green. Malone Town Board member and the Citizen Power Alliance physics consultant, Jack Sullivan, cites the following. “A recent calculation by scientists from the Pacific Research Institute, a West Coast think tank that supplies input to some of the leading newspapers and magazines in the country shows, wind turbines need to operate for 7 years at full capacity to avoid the carbon emissions produced in building them.”
The horrid experience with the Vesta turbines on the Tug Hill project illustrates the lack of dependable machinery. Less than a year in operation, the bulk of the blades needed to be replaced or repaired. The oil leaks issue continues and the chronic low frequency noise effects contribute to a state of severe danger. Does New York City really need a few hundred-skyscraper cranes just performing continuous maintenance?
Even more risky is the fact that the electric grid is unable to accommodate the input of intermittent wind generation. Shadow flicker from blades in the sky equates to a power grid failure with accompanying frequent brown and black outs. In addition, you get the privilege to pay even higher utility rates. What a deal!
Without rigorous scrutiny of the technology and its extending consequences, only naive emotionalism engenders irrational support for industrial wind. Conversely, not all is wasted in harnessing wind power. If the real environmental damage of a useful technology can be overcome, several innovate design and engineered small-scale wind generators offer promise. Wind Turbines Get Architectural Attitude provides an option. “Their design captures efficiency, as they can provide as much as a 30% increase on energy production. Helping obtain this level of efficiency is also the fact that they can rotate at low wind speeds – other smaller low-speed turbines are also in the works. The microturbines are about 200 lbs, 4 feet wide by 4 feet tall, and have a bird screen to protect the pigeons.”
A more creative approach is the Clean Technology Tower which builds on principles of biomimicry, and utilizes advanced technologies and climate-appropriate building systems to foster a symbiotic relationship with its local environment.
An announcement from MIT offers a solar solution and huge benefits for the New York City landscape. According to a news release from MIT, “the solar concentrator collects light at the edges, and dye molecules coated on the glass absorb sunlight and re-emits it at different wavelengths. The light is trapped within the glass and transported to solar cells along the edge, creating electricity and allowing light into the room as well.”
For real large-scale electric generation, wave energy converters may be the answer to coastal urban needs. The following technologies are well worth an examination: The Wave Dragon wave energy converter and the Wavereaper.
Using three blade wind turbines with a size that dwarfs the Stature of Liberty on top of existing buildings is as ridiculous as saying you can eliminate existing fossil fuel generation plants because you only need to use electricity when the wind blows. Even more absurd are developer claims that appreciable and cost effective electric is generated by most of their projects.
Nameplate is the rated capacity of a wind turbine. Production statistics are guarded like the Holy Grail for a very important reason. They are so low, 8 to 12% in most project locations in NYS that the data must remain proprietary. When wind trade groups like AWEA state that thousands of homes can be powered by a project they base their claim on nameplate, not actual useable electricity produced.
Federal REC (renewable energy certificates) credits are the brass ring for wind developers. REC’s are based upon nameplate capacity and not electric generated. Selling these credits is the underlying financial incentive for building bogus wind turbines under the umbrella of legitimate alternative energy projects. Bloomberg just wants to go with the flow. But his plan is walking the high wire without a net.
It is encouraging that the cool reception to the Bloomberg pipe dream demonstrates that pragmatic minds retain some common sense. Just the public safety issue alone should dissuade trite pandering. Energy generation proposals, require sound business models.
Now that the PSC approved the Iberdrola, a Spanish conglomerate and major wind developer, acquisition for Energy East, the prospects of an implosion of the electric grid increases. Bloomberg is an accomplished businessman. Ask him to investigate why industrial wind is in serious decline in Europe! The reason is clear. This method of electric generation is not dependable to service the demand. Being in favor of a failed technology, just to be Green, hurts other forms of alternative energy.
Demand that research funds and incentives be linked to results and not ludicrous promises from unscrupulous developers.
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