Arrive Magazine - March/April, 2009

Abraham Burbank, 10, works on his family farm, part of the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, which operates 195 turbines in upstate New York.

Bloomberg’s vision is a broad one, encompassing wind turbines on the tops of skyscrapers and city bridges. He told Arrive that the city is “still learning about wind’s potential.” But he said he’s encouraged by what he’s seen from potential suppliers, including “designs for small wind turbines on buildings and bridges, large offshore models and even some small installations in parks. Wind is absolutely a part of the solution.”

bigger and further out in the ocean, eliminating the ‘viewshed’ objections many people have. We can send some power west to New York City and some east to Nassau and Suffolk counties, sharing the cost and sharing the electricity.”

Bloomberg is following the utilities’ initiative closely. “When they finish their study, which should be [very soon], we’ll be part of a working group to review the results and see what makes the most sense moving forward,” he says.

A month after Bloomberg jump-started the city’s wind discussion, the idea was back on the agenda at two key New York utilities. Only a year ago, the outlook for a large-scale wind farm for New York City looked rather dim. Kevin S. Law, the chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority, cited rapidly escalating costs when he killed an ambitious project to build just such an offshore farm 3. 5 miles off Jones Beach.

“It was a small, 140-megawatt project with 40 turbines, but the estimated price had ballooned from $200 million to $800 million,” Law says. “And that was before permits had been obtained or construction begun. The eventual cost would have been more than $1 billion. Everyone thinks the wind is free, but the costs for infrastructure and interconnection to the power grid are significant. And then there’s the fact that people don’t want their aesthetic view impacted.”

Still, it was the same Law who, on Sept. 24, 2008, joined with major New York utility Con Edison to announce a bold new wind initiative. Once again the partners are talking about a wind farm, but the location under study is now 10 miles off the south shore of Queens, N. Y.

“We’re very excited about the possibilities,” Law says. “Technology is improving, and now the turbines can be a lot

Harnessing Northeast Wind

There’s a big wind blowing, and it’s shaking things up in the Northeast. Advances in technology, coupled with growing government and societal mandates for renewable energy, have finally made it possible to effectively harness the region’s patchy but intriguing wind resource. As a further incentive, the recently passed financial bailout bill extended the lucrative federal production tax credit for wind. (The extension was for only one year, and wind developers complain that government renewable energy subsidies need to be consistent and long-term.)

If the Northeast’s proposed wind farms are not tucked away out of sight, they’ll likely face determined opposition from people who don’t want to look at them. As they organize, opponents tend to cite a plethora of other issues, including the fact that wind turbines kill birds and bats, that they cast shadows and that they make noise. Some wind farms have also been delayed by concerns over radar interference, which could affect ship navigation, air traffic control and defense systems.