WIND - A BROADWAY HIT

Wind Turbines Are Coming to New York, and Not Just Offshore
Patrick McGeehan, August 16, 2010 (NY Times)

"For years, New York officials have envisioned powering the region from a set of huge wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island. But…[w]ithin three years, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to have five wind towers, each more than 280 feet tall, operating on the west side of New York Harbor…[T]he City of Bayonne, N.J., plans to install an equally large turbine to power a sewage-pumping station…[and] the Department of Veterans Affairs is considering placing wind turbines on or near its hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

"New York, it turns out, is a windy city, well suited for turning stiff breezes into electricity. If open space were not so rare, the city might be a prime spot for harnessing the wind…In 2008, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his plan to use wind power to help reduce the city’s dependence on power plants that run on fossil fuels. So far, there are…only token projects like the small turbines on the roof of an apartment building in the Bronx and a wind-powered electronic billboard for Coca-Cola in Times Square."

click to enlarge

"The city’s Economic Development Corporation has been studying the feasibility of putting turbines atop buildings…But the high hopes rest on a partnership, with utility companies and the New York Power Authority, that has designs on building a wind farm on about 65,000 acres of the Atlantic floor…with hopes of generating as much as 700 megawatts of power there by 2016…

"The Port Authority’s proposed project at Port Jersey on the border of Bayonne and Jersey City would be similar, in appearance and purpose, to a wind farm that was built at a sewage-treatment plant in Atlantic City five years ago…[I]t could be operating by 2013…[T]he five turbines would produce as much as 7.5 megawatts — enough to run at least 2,000 homes…[T]he power generated [will be used] to operate the container port there, then to feed the surplus energy into the local power grid, offsetting some of the authority’s consumption elsewhere…"

The wind-powered sewage treatment facility at Atlantic City (click to enlarge)

"…[T]he City of Bayonne may tap the wind quicker. Construction of a 262-foot-tall turbine has already begun at a plant operated by the city’s Municipal Utilities Authority...That $5.6 million tower, which would be the biggest wind turbine in New Jersey outside of Atlantic City, is expected to start producing more than enough energy to power the plant by September. The city plans to sell the excess power, saving at least $150,000 a year…

"…[Both will] help New Jersey achieve its stated goal[s] of developing 200 megawatts of wind energy onshore by 2020…[and] 3,000 megawatts of wind energy offshore within 10 years…[The] Board of Public Utilities provided $12 million in rebates to three companies that are racing to build the first wind farm 12 miles or more off the coast of New Jersey…[The] State Legislature approved a bill that would provide $100 million in tax credits to the developers of offshore wind farms…[T]hose deepwater projects would cost about twice as much to build as turbines on land…"