Without fanfare (pun intended) the city and state’s first commercial wind turbine, located by the Q River at James Street in Fair Haven, has begun producing green kilowatts.
According to Phoenix Press co-owner Brian Driscoll, the historic moment was low-key.
The turbine receiveda “witnessing test” Monday at 11 a.m. That included an independent engineer and a staffer from UI testing the power, voltage, and emergency procedures.
A city building inspector checked out the entry points towards the back of the building where the eight-inch conduits carry the cables bearing the power from the turbine to Phoenix’s presses.
All was pronounced in order, and the power began to flow.
According to Driscoll, in the two days the turbine’s been on line, 692 kilowatts have been produced. Given that the wind has been blowing slowly, at 3.5 meters a second in fact, he pronounced that very good.
A formal ribbon-cutting is scheduled for Thursday morning.
Normally the wind blows more strongly along the Quinnipiac River at James Street.
Part of the reason Driscoll selected this design: “The beauty of this particular turbine is that it does operate and function at low wind speeds.” Click here and here for previous stories.
Describing the electricity flow as water from a garden hose, Driscoll said, “It sort of like, as we’re generating electricity, it comes through the building. It follows like a garden hose. If water is needed in a certain area of your garden, water will flow until the area is full. If it is not needed in garden, it goes out to the grid.”
There are two meters in the fenced in area at the base of the turbine’s tower. One is a use meter for Phoenix. The way it’s set up, the electricity first powers the presses. Then it serves the office areas, and finally the warehouse.
“Let’s say it’s blowing like crazy on Saturday and we’re shut down, all that goes down the line.”
That line is the grid, where the extra juice travels measured on a second reverse meter, for which Phoenix gets a UI credit. Driscoll gets to read all this in ten-minute increments, along with wind speed, on a computer program that comes along with the whole turbine package.
Driscoll said he expects the turbine to fulfill a third of the total annual power requirements of his building. So pleased in fact they might install a second turbine.
“Our hope and goal is as we develop a year’s worth of knowledge, if it’s working well for us, we’ve left room [in the parking lot area] for a second turbine.”
I wish we could get some more of these up!!! I saw that some cities are setting them up in their landfills. and we have the abandoned cedarhill rail yards.