New Year's Resolution

In the new year, this blawg will focus on a different source of renewable energy and sustainability for urban areas each month.  January will be "Water Month".  Posts will cover hydroelectric power generally, as well as tidal power, wave power, and the more obscure "osmotic power" (deriving energy from the salinity gradient of salt water).  I hope to find more pros than cons in some of these novel ideas, as well as discuss the potential legal framework regarding their implementation in the briny deep surrounding our Fair City.

Happy Holidays, everyone, and Stay Green!

Definitions

old posts from law school research

Some windy ideas for NYC

Recently, the Bloomberg administration reaffirmed its commitment to increasing the wind power of NYC.  Mireya Navarro of the NY Times recently wrote about the DEP’s plans to explore ideas for installation of turbines atop the Fresh Kills landfill.  The article focuses mainly on the potential of off- or near-shore wind exploration, but the environmental effects of this kind of development are still largely undetermined.  Where I think the future of urban wind power will come from is right above our heads.

The Zone Green Text Amendment would amend several portions of the original 1961 zoning amendment, including allowing for the development of  wind turbines “up to 55’ tall beyond the zoning height limit in those situations where potential for wind energy generation is more likely” (according to their FAQ page).  As with any zoning amendment, there is a massive amount of law to consider.  As Katharine Jose of Capital New York points out, the original 1961 amendment has swelled to some 3,500 pages.  One must also consider the myriad of agencies across all different levels of jurisdiction when implementing this kind of legislative change. As it’s written, this amendment would not force any new product or behavior on people or businesses, but would merely ease the process of greening a structure.  This fits in nicely with our independent attitudes, but it means the change will have to be spurred on by some type of marketing or publicity campaign (maybe our old friend Birdie can help us out with this).

Related to this is the Not-In-My-Backyard (or NIMBY) attitude towards urban turbines (or “urbines” as World Architecture News has dubbed them), which I never understood considering some of the beautiful concept designs for turbines that are out there.  I’m extremely fascinated by the potential of vertical turbines, which function regardless of the way the wind is blowing.  Furthermore, their vertical nature causes less of the rotational frequency issues experienced with the more familiar horizontal axis turbines.  A recent paper by M. Ragheb discusses in detail several potential architectural designs that could improve rooftop efficiency, as well as the research still needed to be done and other experimental turbines that have already been placed atop buildings across the world.  Once the wind potential for these types of designs has been further studied and refined, it could catch on the architectural community, especially if the end result is more money in people’s pockets.

As I said before, the future of urban wind power will come from right above our heads; it may very well come from below our feet too.  Have you ever been waiting on the subway platform, possibly at one of those stops that comes after a long tunnel, like Clark St in Brooklyn Heights, and felt the rush of air being pushed by the oncoming train?  Maybe you’ve thought, as I have, “wouldn’t it be great if we could harness all this wind potential?”

As Leora Broydo Vestel of the Times reported in 2009, some cities are already considering placing wind turbines alongside highways to recapture wind generated by passing motorists.  This is an awesomely green idea, taking waste energy produced by gas-guzzling cars and turning it into emissions-free electricity.  Unfortunately, this angle doesn’t benefit NYC too much, since average vehicle speeds, even along the city’s major highways (FDR, BQE) are notoriously slow.  However, plans have been developed in South Korea and China to harvest the windy power of their trains and subways.  China’s plan relies on an ingenious invention called the “T-box” which is basically a mini-vertical turbine, placed on its side, and installed between the rails, capturing wind pushed down and under the train.  Of course, these plans still require lots of R&D and the costs of installation and maintenance are still unknown.

NYC and the Mayor’s Office would do well to invest in this kind of research and see what parts of our subway and commuter rail lines could be used to best harness this waste energy.  I imagine vertical turbines being placed next to (or in lieu of) the load-bearing pylons along our subway platforms, churning away day and night as each train pulls into and out of the station.  These turbines could be plugged directly into the third rail, powering the very subways that are powering them!  Wouldn’t that be something?