Bloomberg Offers Up Windy Proposal

After Staten Island politicians proffered their own wind power feasibility study in New York City that showed that Fresh Kills was the best location, Mayor Mike Bloomberg says that there are plenty of places to put wind power turbines in the City if you just imagine bridges and skyscrapers with wind power turbines on top:

In a plan that would drastically remake New York City’s skyline and shores, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is seeking to put wind turbines on the city’s bridges and skyscrapers and in its waters as part of a wide-ranging push to develop renewable energy.

The plan, while still in its early stages, appears to be the boldest environmental proposal to date from the mayor, who has made energy efficiency a cornerstone of his administration.

Mr. Bloomberg said he would ask private companies and investors to study how windmills can be built across the city, with the aim of weaning it off the nation’s overtaxed power grid, which has produced several crippling blackouts in New York over the last decade.

Mr. Bloomberg did not specify which skyscrapers and bridges would be candidates for windmills, and city officials would need to work with property owners to identify the buildings that would best be able to hold the equipment.

But aides said that for offshore locations, the city was eyeing the generally windy coast off Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island for turbines that could generate 10 percent of the city’s electricity needs within 10 years.

Interesting.

Bloomberg wants to get private businesses to give up air rights to other entities so that wind power projects could use their rooftops instead. He's considering bridges as well.

10% of New York City's power needs? How many wind power turbines would that be? Well, Con Ed notes that peak usage tops out at or above 13,000 mw per day during the summer. On a peak day, that means you need 1,300 mw produced by wind power, and that number is increasing annually because the number of users increases along with demands caused by increasing reliance on technologies. GE's turbines produce 1.5 to 3.6 mw each.

That means you're going to need hundreds to meet the goal of 10% of power needs. Each one needs space to operate. Lots of space.

And, most curiously, he's suggesting building the wind power projects offshore. Just how far offshore? Where exactly can these wind power facilities be built offshore without interfering with harbor traffic? Brooklyn is pretty much surrounded by heavily trafficked waterways, as is Queens. And I doubt that Connecticut will favor having its Long Island Sound views marred by wind turbines dotting the Sound (to say nothing of possibly restricting harbor traffic).

The NY Times has been busy trying to take the wind out of the sails of wind power projects upstate. Did the Times foresee Bloomberg's proposals and want to try and get people to come out against any kind of change?

Bloomberg is engaging in little more than wishful thinking here. Neighboring New Jersey has had a wind power project stalled for years because Gov. Corzine hasn't lifted a finger to cut through the red tape that has kept a project that would be located far enough from New Jersey's shores to not be seen. Corzine has been as strong a proponent of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing alternative energy reliance as anyone out there, including Bloomberg, and he's got a favorable legislator. Corzine hasn't done anything except blow a lot of hot air.

Bloomberg doesn't even have that luxury. He's literally tilting at windmills, given that there's little chance that these proposals will come to pass (much like many of his other grandiose proposals).

A combination of NIMBY and eco-nuts will thwart those windmills from being built atop skyscrapers, and the harbor traffic will severely curtail where those offshore wind power facilities can be built. Watch for the arguments to commence about air rights, ecological harm, and perhaps even the fact that the droning sound of wind power turbines is harmful.

The thing is, I support wind power proposals, but Bloomberg's plans come off half baked. He's ignoring the potentials from the Staten Island Fresh Kills plan, and the fact that NIMBY is a strong driver of opposition to power projects, regardless of how green they are. People talk about how green they are and want people to be, but when faced with the proposition of having them in their backyard, they demur.