Backyard wind power? Not so fast

Talk about taking the wind out of urban wind power’s sails.

Graham Findlay in Ottawa was told he cannot install a wind turbine in his backyard, despite support from his neighbours. Besides having to change the zoning of his home, he would have to set up the turbine so that if it fell, it would fall only on his property.

The turbine in question is a ten-meter tall Energy Ball V100, designed for residential areas. According to Ottawa’s current bylaws, wind turbines can only be erected on properties that are at least 0.8 hectares in size; about 8,000 square meters. What does that mean?  For urbanites, it’s checkmate.  According to Ottawa’s Planning and Development Approvals Commissioner, 8,000 square meters is the minimum plot size for country lots. Lots created for average homes are generally around 2,200 square meters.

The Energy Ball V100 is nothing like wind-farm turbines. It’s actually shaped like a ball, and has a very discreet design. It takes a load off of the local power grid; Findlay says it would supply his house with 10 per cent of its energy needs.

In the future, it may be possible to install smaller turbines in urban backyards. The Green Energy Act seems to stipulate zoning rules don’t apply to certain renewable-energy installations.

However, because the Green Energy Act is so new – only passed in May – Ottawa is still getting its ducks in a row about how it will be put into practice.

Urban wind turbines

It’s hard for dense metropolitan areas like New York City to go green. There is no room for say, massive two-hundred-foot-tall wind turbines. Or is there?

Well, there is on a small scale. New York City recently began mounting apartment-sized wind turbines that look a lot like table fans onto their affordable housing complexes. Supplying power directly to homes, the small turbines typically cut electricity costs in half.

Cleveland State University scientist Dr. Majid Rashidi (pictured left) is taking it one step further: he wants to replace the water towers that grace many of NYC’s older buildings with a wind-turbine silo. The logic is New Yorkers are already accustomed to the roof-top structures, making the retro-fit the ideal opportunity to turn the concrete jungle green.

One of the major problems preventing wind turbines from being truly effective in urban areas is the difficulty in harnessing the variable and unstable wind speeds. That’s why Rashidi’s design is generating so much interest.

The silo-like structure containing four wind turbines actually accelerates the wind hitting the turbines and allows them to generate power more consistently than one of the more typical mini airplane propeller type turbines.

And while the building-mounted wind turbine won’t exactly be winning any wind-generating awards, producing only about 8 kilowatts per hour, it is still a gust in the right direction, saving a potential 600,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

And on the smog-choked streets of New York City, that’s not going to blow past unnoticed.

Wind power takes a blow from the global economy

The Atlantic coast is a windy, windy place, no doubt about that.

Luckily, wind is a useful resource, and moves are being made to harness that wind and turn a profit. But, there are obstacles galore.

A $1 billion wind farm in Summerside, P.E.I. was delayed by the sudden economic downturn, as investors backed out at the last minute. Originally going forward in stages, phases one and two are now being combined. Four turbines are expected to be installed by November.

Additionally, the project has run into a strong case of NIMBY. Local residents aren’t completely sold on the project. In 2006, the first two windmills were installed on this farm. They were met with some protest. More seems likely to come.

The provincial government, led by Energy Minister Richard Brown, is trying to turn them around on the idea. He insists the money generated from projects like this will be good for the provincial economy. Given the current economic climate, “good for the economy” may translate into “necessary.”

The province receives a percentage of the revenue generated by wind power. They also get a piece of the action from lands rentals where the windmills are located, and a 16 per cent corporate income tax rate.

Wind power figures to play a prominent role in PEI’s future economic well being. 18 per cent of PEI’s electrical energy is already generated by wind. Provincially-owned wind farms already are in place on either end of the island province.

Many European firms have their eyes on P.E.I. as an excellent location for their windmills.

There’s gold in the winds?

Bird-proof wind turbines under development

The debate on how best to maximize green energy and protect wildlife continues to be the source of turbulent debate, at least when it comes to wind power and the deadly interactions with birds and bats.

Relatively speaking, wind turbines are a negligible threat to birds and bats, compared to say, cats. But bird groups advocate for better-sited wind farms in order to lessen the impact on wildlife, prompting scientists to seek ways to essentially bird-proof turbines.

Location, location, location…

The problem with wind farms is that the locations are chosen for the same reason that birds and bats choose their migratory flight paths: the wind. Birds follow the winds because it creates less turbulence than hilly, or tree- and city- covered land, which results in an easier, faster and smoother flight…which puts them right in the path of the wind farms.

Wind turbines have come a long way in the last 25 years. The former ‘lattice’ design of towers used back then provided perches which actually attracted birds to the blades. The wind turbine blade configuration and size, and reduced speed of new designs have had the effect of lowering mortality rates. Though not as effective as the horizontal design, the vertical spires may be a good compromise.

Today scientists, wind companies, and environmentalists are working together to bird-proof the turbines. There are already bird-safe home wind turbines. And for the past several years, wildlife biologists have been observing and measuring the interactions of migratory birds and lake-anchored wind turbines.

The creatures and critters of 2008

They exploded, slithered, twittered, munched away and got eaten. Our best picks for energy in the animal kingdom this year.

As a group of University of Calgary researchers discovered, bats are susceptible to sudden drops in pressure created by windmills blades and can succumb to a condition know as barotrauma.

Checkmate SeaEnergy created an alternative energy technology that puts the “ee!” back in “green.” Called the Anaconda, the device is a long, rubber tube that will slither through ocean waves to generate electricity. JLo and Ice Cube would be proud.

FuelFrog lets you track and share mileage, the cost of gasoline and your efforts to be more fuel efficient. A little bit of public shame can be a good thing.

Research from Penn State suggests that grazing muskoxen may be sending us closer and closer to an overheated planet. Climate models are tricky.

Kangaroos produce fewer greenhouse gases that cows. They are plentiful and their padded feet don’t erode the soil like cloven hooves do. An Aussie argument in favour of marsupials as a climate change solution.

The winds of change are a blowin’

EarthFirst launched their much-anticipated Dokie Wind Project by unveiling BC’s first operating commercial wind turbine, a three-megawatt Vestas V90 northwest of Chetwynd.  It’s the first of seven for 2008, which will start pumping precious power into BC’s grid in the spring.  41 more will be built next year.  How much difference will that make?  A single turbine can satisfy the electricity needs of approximately 700 homes.  At the end of 2009, the Dokie project will generate an impressive 144 megawatts, or enough for 33,000 homes.  

Is that significant?  It’s more like a good start.  Assuming three people live in the average home (a fairly safe ballpark guess) that’s almost 100,000 people.  But there are some 4.3 million people in British Columbia alone.  

Wind power has come a long way in Canada.  It now generates enough to power 560,000 homes, or one small city.  It’s equally true that wind power has a long way to go.  As much progress Canada has made, we’re still far behind leaders like Germany and Spain.  

Luckily, reinforcements are on the way. EarthFirst has other projects in the works for Ontario, Newfoundland, Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC, including the Dokie expansion.  What’s the potential for all this?  Take Denmark as an example. It derives 20 per cent of its electricity from the wind.  Were Canada to match Denmark in wind power, it would be enough to power 17 million homes.  

It seems the winds of change are blowing in Canada, from coast to coast.

Too much of a good thing?

Wind power is one of the most exciting, and costly, sources of alternative energy available to Canadians. Currently, we have an installed capacity of 1,855 megawatts, the 11th highest in the world.

But for all the excitement over wind power, sometimes it can go wrong, and we’re not talking about errant birds being turned into feathery paste.

For a particularly spectacular example of wind power’s worst case scenario, we leave Canada for a short trip into the high winds of Denmark, land of exotic pastries and heavy metal drummers. There, we find a wind turbine explosion that looks more like a Hollywood special effect than a power generating catastrophe.

Often circulated with the kind of breathless subject line (“OMG!1! windmill 4 REAL!!”) that’s liable to end up in the “junk” folder, the video shows a windmill located near the Danish city of Århus being destroyed during high winds. The winds rotate the blades at dicing speed, causing one of the rotor blades to break off, eventually shearing the tower in half — all a result of getting more of the windmill’s energy source than its structure could handle.

If any doubt remained over the truth of the fantastic shot, the inimitable urban legends website Snopes recently confirmed the video, linking the collapse to the collapse of two Vestas wind turbines first reported by the Copenhagen Post. According to the Post, which first ran the story in February, the cause of the collapse was likely related to faulty maintenance on the 20-year-old windmill.

Good news, considering that Canada is already poised to add another 800 MW of wind power in 2008. After all, it’s hard (though not impossible) to get more than enough of a good thing.

Offshore wind projects: high seas and even higher costs

There’s no question, among Britons, anyway, that Britannia rules the waves. Now, the managing company of the British monarchy’s property Crown Estate, is hoping to expand that rule by building 25 gigawatts worth of new offshore wind farm sites by 2020— part of meeting the EU’s target of generating 20 per cent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

Not only is the project slated to boost Britain’s total offshore wind generation to 33 GW, but the added 5,000 turbines will make Britain the world’s leader in offshore wind generation.

Despite the Crown Estate’s understandable bullishness on the project, however, thousands of new, renewable energy generators doesn’t necessarily offer the UK clear sailing.

The latest example of a declining offshore wind project is the London Array which recently lost one of its major investors after Royal Dutch Shell cited the rising costs of steel and turbines.

As Bloomberg reported in May, offshore wind turbines are almost twice as expensive as their land-based counterparts. And with a limited number of specially designed barges available, it becomes doubly difficult to build and maintain turbines in the middle of potentially choppy waters.

But despite these difficulties, investment in offshore wind farms continues, and the UK seems determined to rule both its waves and its wind.

Say yes to YIMBY

We’ve heard a lot about NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) when it comes to renewable energy development. For some people, the idea of using so-called green power is fabulous – as long as it’s tucked away and out of sight. But increasingly, there’s a lot more YIMBY going on as people say YES to backyard power—small, single family projects as opposed to large, city-powering generation systems.

While the move from NIMBY to YIMBY can be driven by direct benefit from living off the grid (as Royal Roads University in Victoria is attempting), it can also come from a simple love of eco-friendly power within sight of your kitchen window. In 2005, David Suzuki affirmed his belief in the beauty of wind power with an articulate defense of that oft-NIMBY’d energy source.

Whatever your motivation for saying YIMBY to backyard energy, there are more and more opportunities for making wind, solar or even ethanol energy part of your home. Do-it-yourselfers have already drawn up the plans (as featured in Canadian Home Workshop).

So, it seems the only question left is: are you ready to say YIMBY?