New Haven Independent

Approval Nears for City Wind Turbine

by Sarah Vanderbilt | August 22, 2008 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

A plan to bring a wind energy to New Haven’s waterfront has come one step closer to reality.

After a welcome reception at an aldermanic committee Thursday night, a proposal to erect a wind turbine along Long Wharf was sent back to the full Board of Aldermen.

Long Wharf is slated to be one of three sites statewide to house a small wind turbine, courtesy of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

New Haven will most likely only receive one wind turbine, rather than the two originally proposed to the board last month. That’s because a third site, in Stonington, has been added to the list of recipients. New Haven’s turbine would be located near the Info New Haven booth on Long Wharf.

The turbine would be paid for by the Clean Energy Fund, which is funded by a surcharge on residential and commercial electric bills. A year after its installation, ownership of the turbine would transfer to the city. Maintenance costs are expected to be $1,000 every five years, and the turbine is expected to have a lifespan of 10 years.

Giovanni Zinn (pictured), environmental consultant for City Plan, spoke about the program at the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy Committee on Thursday night. Because there were only three aldermen present, not the four needed for a quorum, the meeting was technically a “workshop,” not a committee meeting, and no votes were taken.

The turbine will be small, about 22 feet in diameter, and it will only generate $5,000 worth of electricity a year, which will power the Info New Haven station. But the three turbines, scattered throughout the state, will allow the Clean Energy Fund to collect data for a larger program: creating incentives for Connecticut residents who power their houses with wind.

Zinn said that the small turbines in question are designed for residential use, and can power a medium-sized house.

“Most likely not in dense New Haven,” he said, “but maybe a big house in Branford.” He said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a New Haven home using a small turbine, but that height restrictions and other zoning laws would make residential wind power in the city quite unlikely.

Bigger Plans On The Horizon

Zinn thinks that large wind turbines, for businesses rather than residents, may be on the city’s horizon, as rising energy costs make wind power more attractive to developers who want to divorce themselves from the ups and downs of the energy market. “From a business perspective, having a renewable installation on site gives you a predictable cost of energy,” Zinn said after the meeting. “For financial planning purposes, that’s absolutely amazing.”

The Clean Energy Fund already provides incentives for large turbines, but so far, there are only a handful in Connecticut, and none that Zinn is aware of in New Haven. Other states like Massachusetts and New York have more established programs.

For now, the focus is on the lone turbine-to-be on Long Wharf, which will serve as more of a testing ground than anything else. “The purpose of the study is to find out for a given machine and a given wind speed, how much electricity are you getting out? Not all wind turbines are created equal,” Zinn said.

Committee Chair Erin Sturgis-Pascale elected to discharge this agenda item and five others from committee, even though there was not a quorum to vote, because they were deemed to be relatively uncontroversial.

This means the item will return to the full board for consideration at its next meeting, on September 2.

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Comments

Posted by: anon | August 22, 2008 2:16 PM

Who pays to remove it after 10 years?

Posted by: jawbone | August 24, 2008 10:39 AM

I just looked into private residential wind turbines yesterday at swiftwindturbine.com

I submitted my address to the website for a "wind analysis" of my home's location. Unfortunately the site came back with an analysis that the neighborhood I live in is a zone #1 (the lowest ranking) for wind power and it is unadvisible to install a residential wind turbine.
The website also estimates the cost to the homeowner to be approximately $10-12K, installed.
Like a lot of the issues discussed in this forum, wind power is complicated. It appears to be not as simple and plunking down a big chunk of money, plugging in your new wind turbine and recieving free electrical power for life. I wonder if the guys in this article know that New Haven may not be windy enough for these things to be practical?
Also, not to be a nitpick, but, $5000 a year to power the Info New Haven hut at Longwharf? It couldn't possibly use that much power annually. I have never even seen it open. Maybe the NHPD should take it over as a "drag strip command control center" on weekends. At least the free power could be put to a good use.

Posted by: Anon 2 | August 24, 2008 5:13 PM

The City would pay for it. In reality, the turbine has more of a 20+ year life and the removal cost would be minisule as compared to the electricity cost savings it will generate over that time.

Posted by: dwightstreetrenter | August 25, 2008 9:14 AM

the CT Clean Energy Fund pays for the installation and the maintenance until the City takes ownership of it. What we really need in New Haven is a LARGE turbine near the old Pirelli building (next to IKEA) and several short-tower turbines on East Breakwater (the one with the SOLAR-POWERED lighthouse) at the entrance to the harbor. UI should own/operate these turbines; a free energy source + method to capture it = excellent profit margin. It makes sense...the US is decades behind the rest of the world in terms of Renewables.
site-surveys are a great way to determine what kind of renewable energy is right for your home. The higher off the ground the turbine is, the more wind (and less interference from trees, other buildings, ground effect) there is. Have a stream on your property? Use a microhydro turbine, which is inherently more reliable (in terms of constant output) than solar or wind.
Wind power isn't new; the CT Clean Energy Fund staff know that it's new in CONNECTICUT, so having actual data and the visibility to the thousands who drive on I-95 each day are two very valuable aspects of this project.

If more energy is generated than is used, the electric meter spins backwards, granting a credit to the metered account. At the end of the year, if more energy was created than used (net), the electric company must issue a REFUND CHECK to the owner.

When's the last time someone gave a money-maker to the city, free of charge?!

Renewables definately have a place in New Haven. The harbor is incredibly dirty, polluted, and industrialized. Adding a sculpture of kinetic motion, which produces energy from the movement of air (instead of combustion of liquefied dinosaurs), will change how visitors see New Haven - from another filthy landscape like Bridgeport, to a progressive city trying to reduce its abhorrent asthma rates.

Bring it on! I for one am not looking forward to the NEXT price increase in electricity costs. Not relying on foreign sources of energy is not only good for MY POCKET, it's also good for the local economy. Let's get a large turbine in the harbor, and move New Haven into the 21st century!

BTW, ANY step in the right direction, which causes a perceptual shift in public opinion for the good, is worthwhile. But save the "tests" for the skeptical. It's time to act... we HAVE the data. Put a $45 anemometer on top of Ikea and monitor it for a year. Then install a turbine that will offset thousands of homes, instead of just one Info booth!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | September 3, 2008 10:47 AM

Hmmm one??? My god man!! Can we get grants for these??? There must be some public funding somewhere? UI has sucked us dry why not have them invest in the future of New Haven? I am sure their are other places in New Haven that can have these? What about our schools? We have shore lines? comon' My earthy posters their has to be a way?

Posted by: Bruce | September 3, 2008 11:42 AM

This turbine is properly sized for a medium house, but it will save four times the average electric bill. I wish more numbers were available for this project. I suppose that it could match the power needs of a home while generating four times the energy (same max power rating but longer operation than average home needs).

Jawbone: The website you plugged your address into could not possibly know the wind patterns with such accuracy. This is why test programs like this exist -- to test feasibility. People can scratch down numbers on paper all day long, but until you build something you really have no confidence that something will work well or not. Also, I assume the power will feed back into the grid, not just to that little guard house. This is basically running the meter backward to the point that you're selling electricity back to the electric company.

Posted by: jawbone | September 3, 2008 2:09 PM

This is a facinating issue to watch primarily because utilities such as UI must be very concerned about wind power and the very concept of meters running backwards.
It may be possible that we, as private electricity consumers, are seeing such a spike in our electrical bills precisely because UI needs to guarantee their shareholders ever increasing rates of return. Don't forget, in 2000 UI transformed itself into a holding company that is publicly traded.
As many consumers seek ways to conserve their general consumption (either out of financial need or a broader sense of environmental stewardship, or both) and other third-parties start to offer renewable sources of energy into the mix, it must be scary for UI indeed. No wonder they are continually asking for, and getting, rate increases due to what they claim as "increased costs".
I seriously doubt that UI will ever be part of the solution. A large profit generating machine such as UI is not fluid or dynamic enough to adopt new(ish) technologies such as wind energy. They fight to the death against change and bank on the government to bail them out. See also: airlines, banks, and automotive corporations. The so-called cornerstones of our U.S. economy.
Bring on wind energy and lets see where it goes.

Posted by: fedupwithliberals | September 3, 2008 6:43 PM

All of you had better stand next to one of these things and see how much noise they make before you start wishing they were in your neighborhood. Forget about "peaceful enjoyment" of your property for good!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | September 3, 2008 9:00 PM

FEDUp what about the harbor??

My yard is to small, and solar panel are out to, but times are changing and more light weight and affordable products are just around the corner

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=49852

Posted by: jawbone | September 4, 2008 9:21 AM

I live two blocks from I-91...I'd pay extra for a loud wind turbine. Anything to drown out the sound up racing motorcyclists killing themselves up on the freeway...
-Jawbone

Posted by: Bruce | September 4, 2008 9:59 AM

Jawbone,

UI cannot adopt wind generation because they no longer generate electricity. When we deregulated in the 1990s, they sold off all of their power plants and now they are only in the transmission and distribution business.

However, you can make that choice! Sign up for a clean energy option, which means your generation charges will support wind and other renewables. Follow this link for more details: http://www.ctcleanenergyoptions.com/

On top of your personal support of renewables, the town will receive solar panels depending on how many people sign up.

Posted by: jawbone | September 4, 2008 10:24 AM

Bruce, great suggestion.
My family has already signed up to the clean energy option. It does cost more, however, and that is reflected on my UI bill every month.
I'll keep an eye out for those solar panels. Perhaps they've been installed in the mayor's backyard?

Approval Nears for City Wind Turbine

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