City Vies To Host Giant Wind Turbine

briv

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This story was in the Business section of the Boston Globe today. It could be pretty cool seeing this thing whirling away from Charlestown or over off to the side as youre driving over the Tobin Bridge. To give you an idea of how big this would be, I believe the Tobin is only 440' at its highest point:

c_turbine.jpg


The Boston Globe said:
City vies to host giant wind turbine
Romney hoping US picks Massport site for test tower

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | December 13, 2006

Boston's northern gateway could soon have a tower to rival the Tobin Bridge and Charlestown's 221-foot-high Bunker Hill Monument : a high wind turbine that would become the nation's top facility for testing designs of turbine blades as long as hockey rinks.

City and state officials are proposing to use surplus space at a Massachusetts Port Authority pier for the $9 million turbine test tower and laboratory. The US Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, which is sponsoring the project, expects to decide by late next month whether the Charlestown plan will get the nod.

Sites in Iowa, Maine, northern Ohio, Texas, and Virginia have also been proposed as potential locations for the one planned test facility, laboratory spokesman George Douglas said.

State officials have also proposed a harborfront site in New Bedford as another possible venue.

The key reason for proposing the Charlestown site, officials said, is to simplify the process of unloading and installing turbine blades that resemble gigantic airplane propellers of up to 220 feet long and 20 feet wide. Being able to bring them in on a ship or barge and transfer them directly to the test tower is crucial because transporting them inland by highway or rail could be prohibitively expensive or physically impossible.

With a month left before Governor Mitt Romney leaves office, the wind turbine site proposal is part of a flurry of efforts Romney's top economic adviser, Ranch Kimball, is pushing to leave a wide-ranging Romney renewable-energy and "green power" legacy. Romney's administration is also pushing several regulatory proceedings to promote energy conservation and more efficient, less polluting kinds of electric generation.

In an interview, Kimball said the wind turbine facility would be more than just a prominent symbol of the state's support for renewable energy. "It sends a signal around the industry that a lot of very important wind research and development happens in Massachusetts, and if you've got a wind lab here, it starts to become a center of gravity for the development of the technology," Kimball said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's top energy and environmental adviser, James W. Hunt III, said Menino is very supportive of the plan.

"We're looking to create an image of Boston that respects our past but also looks forward to new opportunities," Hunt said. "This would put Boston on the cutting edge of renewable energy."

Because the site is in an overwhelmingly industrial section of Charlestown, Hunt said, Menino is confident it would not have an unacceptable impact on neighborhood residents, who would be involved in the planning.

"This would be a great source of jobs and economic development," Hunt added.

Charlestown Neighborhood Council officials knowledgeable about the proposal did not return phone calls yesterday.

State Senator Jarrett Barrios, a Cambridge Democrat who represents Charlestown, could not be reached for comment.

For drivers coming into Boston from the north over the Tobin Bridge, the project would offer an arresting view, with wind turbines extending up to 450 feet above the ground at the highest point of their rotation.

Different kinds of blades would be installed on the tower for days or weeks at a time, with scientists monitoring how well they perform and how efficient they are at producing electricity.

State officials estimate the project would cost about $8.8 million. Of that, $3.4 million would come from the state Division of Energy Resources; $3.4 million from the Renewable Energy Trust, which is funded by a roughly 20-cent-a-month tax on electric bills; and $2 million in the form of equipment donated by the US Energy Department.

University of Massachusetts officials are also working with the state and energy trust on the project.

State officials said Massport has substantial extra space on the site formally known as the Mystic Wharf and Mystic Pier One. The 65-acre site was formerly known as the Moran Container Terminal before being converted in 1998 to an "Autoport" for ships unloading cars and trucks, when container operations were moved to South Boston.

The site can handle as many as 50,000 vehicles annually, but has been operating at roughly 80 percent of capacity. For the last two years, about 12,000 vehicles have come into the facility by ship, and another 28,000 vehicles have been transported there by truck for final preparations and finishes before being shipped out to auto dealers, Massport data show.

Peter Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
? Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
 
Boston is the windiest city in the country, but this is not getting built.

Turbine blades would be tested horizontally
A top state official 'miscommunicates' facility design plan

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | December 14, 2006

There won't be a 450-foot-tall windmill spinning over Charlestown after all -- but there could be a new 300-foot long, four-story building on a neighborhood wharf for testing wind turbine blades.

Based on reports from top state and city officials, the Globe reported yesterday that Governor Mitt Romney's administration was looking at a Massachusetts Port Authority pier for a potential US Energy Department wind turbine testing facility, including a tower for turbines with blades spinning up to 450 feet above the ground.

In fact, the project would only involve a building 300 feet long and 50 feet high where turbine blades up to 230 feet long would be turned on their sides and subjected to engineering and strength tests.

The state's application to the Energy Department does say the site, which is currently used for ships to unload cars and trucks, could host a wind speed testing tower up to 330 feet high. But that would be optional, and it would have only small test blades spinning on it, not gigantic 230-footers that resemble airplane propellers.

"There is no proposal whatsoever to install a turbine at that location, and the turbine blades would never be tested vertically," said Anthony L. Rogers , director of research and technology for the University of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is working on the project along with the state Renewable Energy Trust and Romney energy aides. "It would be, from the outside, a large-ish industrial building, but it need not be ugly in any way, shape, or form."

An aide to state Economic Affairs Secretary Ranch Kimball , Wyndham Lewis, said Kimball "had a miscommunication" in how he described the facility. Mayor Thomas M. Menino's top environmental aide, James W. Hunt III , who also described the proposal Tuesday as involving a spinning turbine, said yesterday: "The facility is horizontal."

Massachusetts officials have also proposed a site on New Bedford Harbor as another option for the $9 million blade-test lab. States including Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia, are also competing for the lab. The Energy Department is expected to make a decision next month.

Judy Brennan , a leader of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, said she was relieved to learn there won't be a giant turbine looming over Charlestown. "But, I have nothing but questions," Brennan said. "No one in this community knows anything about this."

State Senator Jarrett Barrios, a Cambridge Democrat, said he and Charlestown's representative, Eugene L. O'Flaherty, are pushing for full community briefings and a neighborhood review. Barrios, who was the first state senator to back the 130-tower Cape Wind proposal in Nantucket Sound, said the test lab could be "an exciting way to support the growth of this industry in Massachusetts. Having said that, everything needs to go through a community process."

Lanny Johnson , a business development consultant to Autoport, the car-shipping company that currently uses the proposed Charlestown site, said the company is eager to engage talks about fitting the test lab in with its operations.

"This project is exciting," Johnson said. "It has the potential, in the long run, for creating an alternative energy supply in New England."

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
 
So will Boston soon be the new Windy City?

yes, as palindrome already said, Boston is statistically already the windiest city in the country
 

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