So I have friends in Bay Village who want to use the extreme wind blowing in off of the lake to help offset their energy costs. Why not? There have been so many issues with wind power over the years, but I can’t help but wonder what the hold up is. When farmers across the Midwest put in a well, they put up a windmill to pump the water. It was a no brainer-it is what you did. Why are we not using that mentality to produce clean efficient energy in our own backyards?
Cleveland is opting in for the off shore wind farm. That means we already know that the wind power is there. Why are wind turbine makers not lined up to sell my friends a green energy powerhouse? There are two factors that I see. They are regulation and equipment. They go hand in hand and I think that it is all about to change.
So far, in order to get any benefit from a wind turbine, it was necessary to have it mounted some
Swift wind turbine
25′-50′ off of the ground. Turbines were noisy and vibrated like crazy. For these reasons, they have had trouble fitting into the urban landscape and the zoning and building laws that governed them. I was so pleased to see some new ideas and products this last year. The first is a traditional rooftop unit that is designed to be quieter and produce lower vibrations. This turbine was developed by Swift and is being produced in Michigan. ( I like that it is nearby, but why are we not using our Cleveland infrastructure to manufacture cool stuff like this here? ) We shall see if this will meet the standards to employ it in the urban marketplace, but I like the vision of multiple units on every building!
Offsetting traditional electricity cost
Windation power module
The next item that I love is a self contained unit by Windation. This rooftop unit looks like any HVAC unit and could easily fit atop existing rooftops in cities where there is plenty of wind-like Cleveland or Chicago.
The last option that I like is the vertical wind turbine. These units have advantages as well as disadvantages, but take up little space and can harness power from multiple wind directions. The really cool thing is that they can be manufactured to look like art. I have seen many versions that are beautiful. How exciting to see a city scape of beauty that is creating power.
I can’t wait for Greenbuild in Boston to see what other new gems are out there and what we can expect to see in the coming months! Maybe by next winter, my friends in Bay Village will be part of a new group-the urban wind farmer.
Tags: Energy, Swift, Wind Power, Windation
Oy Windside out of (I believe, Finland) produces really cool vertical turbines. They don’t generate much electricity, but they are really, really, cool to look at. They don’t cost all that much either.
When you are thinking about wind power you must also factor in a conversion system (typically from DC to AC) and a battery system. You have to have a battery to store the electricity temporarily while your house or building distributes it to the electrical system. You can add more batteries if you’d like to store any extra electricity made. It is also a Federal law that independent power companies must provide net-metering (buying back your extra electricity), but public or co-op power companies are exempt from the law, and none here in Cleveland are doing it of their own free will.
Oh, and sometimes you’ll hear arguments that wind turbines are bad for birds, that they create carnage due to birds flying into the propellers. That’s just a myth. Wind farms and windmills have been around for years and they haven’t had any such “carnage”.
The end.
Ohio’s only wind turbine manufacturer has a patented revolutionary urban wind turbine being roled out to many business throughout 2009. The product is the windcube being launched in Chicago at Windpower 2009 Convention on May 3, 2009. This system is a 60kW system and amplifies the wind times two therefore producing the most amount of kWh’s than any other urban wind turbine in the industry and it is all built in Ohio. The jobs and careers being produced will definitely give Ohio a boost in the renewable energy race. The reduction in electric bills for many commercial and industrial companies will encourage several others to buy the windcube and take advantage of the incentives that are available from both the State of Ohio and Federal Investment Tax Incentives.