New Haven Independent

The news was that a 90-foot tower is being constructed topped by small, slowly turning blades to bring wind energy to New Haven.

Mayor John DeStefano is pictured, with an artist’s rendering of a turbine. He and representatives of the companies involved in the construction of the 90-foot tower had time to explain the project before the rain began pelting down.

After mentioning several of the city’s other renewable energy projects already operating — retrofitting of the city’s diesel fleet, the solar array at Barnard School, and the construction of the 360 State Street residential project as LEED-certified — he said the small, six-kilowatt turbine is being built in partnership with the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund

“This is not meant to change the total universe of energy sourcing in New Haven,” the mayor said with a flourish of understatement. It will power just the small building at the start of Long Wharf Pier and some of the adjacent street lights. The idea is to test the feasibility and the public’s appetite for wind energy. “It’s a tiny first step, but it’s a step.”

David Youngquist (pictured), associate director of the Clean Energy Fund, said, “Connecticut generally does not have really good wind resources. The purpose of this project is to help the Clean Energy Fund evaluate the usefulness and the economics of small wind installations in Connecticut.” It’s one of three small turbines being built around the state as part of the fund’s $500,000 Small Wind Turbine Demonstration Project. Measurements taken as they operate will provide more information about the feasibility of increasing wind capacity in the area. Ljunquist said the newer models are more bird-friendly than older ones.

Shawn Shaw, an associate of Cadmus Group, the main contractor, said the project should be completed by this summer. The blades will produce a soft whirring noise that won’t be audible above background noise at a distance of one hundred feet.

Since climate scientists warn that planet-wide devastation is probably inevitable if major changes in energy production and use aren’t undertaken by 2012, this tiny step could seem inconsequential, but Director of City Plan Karyn Gilvarg took a glass-half-full approach.

“Things can expand logarithmically from here,” she said, mentioning a commercial-scale turbine going up at Phoenix Press as perhaps the first of many of that size that could be built. Asked how hard it was to get that turbine sited, she said, “He’s in an industrial zone, and there’s no height limit in an industrial zone in New Haven. We did do a coastal site plan review, because it’s in a coastal zone, but there were no regulatory barriers to do it. Residential zones have height limits, so before people jump in to do one in their back yard, first they’d better make sure they have wind. And if they do, we’d have to look at working with them on zoning,” to get an exception to the regulations.

Is the day not far off when New Haven will boast a sleeker, more energy efficient version of the ubiquitous windmills that once upon a time powered the Dutch landscape?