In case you missed it in our local paper and you don’t read the Climate Protection Action Committee (May), the Museum of Science is home to a roof-top laboratory for small wind turbines. If you did catch those pieces when they came out, where you aware that there are now five turbines being test?
Remember T. Boone Pickens and his famous plan? There’s been much buzz today (for example) about an announcement of the downward revision of his original plans to one quarter the original scale. The change has been attributed to lower fossil fuel prices than when the plan was first put forth, as well as the credit crunch. However, Pickens is already on the hook for nearly 700 turbines, and he plans to make several smaller wind farms rather than the megafarm previously proposed. Most people seem to see this as an unfortunate turn of events, but a handful of smaller installations are a more sound strategy from most vantage points e.g; redundancy, minimizing impacts, etc. As for the diminished capacity, initial delivery is not due until 2011, so it there’s probably still time for things to pick back up.
(Update)
P.S. There seems to be a new wind installation in Harvard Square next to The Garage at Dunster & Mount Auburn. Give it a gander next time you’re in the area, and if you forget but it’s gusty out, you might just look up to figure out where that gentle whirr is coming from. (Click the image at right for a better view)
Massachusetts Governor and Presidential pal Deval Patrick has very quietly become one of wind power’s biggest boosters over the last year or so. And he looks absolutely nothing like, or thinks nothing like wind power’s biggest booster, T Boone Pickens. Which goes to show you the search for clean renewable energy, just like politics, can make for strange bedfellows.
Patrick-2,000 megawatts of wind power on the grid before 2020
Patrick, who called for an increase in Massachusett’s solar capacity from the current 4MW to 250 MW soon after he was elected in 2006, had this to say about the state’s (soon to be) booming wind power industry.
“With the growing interest in wind turbines we see in communities across the Commonwealth and the abundant wind resource we have off our coast, wind power is going to be a centerpiece of the clean energy economy we are creating for Massachusetts,”
Massachusetts has also been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for one of just two Wind Technology Testing Centers in the country (Texas also was selected), poising the Commonwealth to become a national center for wind power research and development-and thereby offering the potential economic rewards of technology development, entrepreneurship and jobs.
The folks at Renewable Energy World have the rest of the story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9flSPAdOLk
It sure looks cool.
Helixwind’s manufacturer says it works at lower altitudes, is less of an eyesore, and is more bird-friendly than standard turbine designs, but many blog posters are demanding more hard data before falling in love with the design. We’d suggest some research at the AWEA site (you didn’t know that stands for the American Wind Energy Association?) before signing any purchase orders.
The company has recently posted some PDFs containing more detailed specifications.