Urban wind power showing feasibility
By Douglas Heingartner
Associated Press
EDE, Netherlands — In this small town whose old wooden mill generates more tourism than energy, a shiny new stainless-steel windmill on the roof of a technical school barely whispers as its blades spin in a brisk breeze.
Associated Press
Such high-tech turbines, which feed into power grids, are poised to conquer a new frontier — the city center, where they can be fused into building designs to make them less conspicuous.
A wind turbine atop a technical school in Ede, Netherlands, generates electricity to feed into local grids.
Lighter, quieter and often more efficient than their lumbering rural counterparts, these are built to take advantage of the extreme turbulence and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns.
Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power, "mainly because of the lack of space here," said Sander Mertens, a wind energy researcher at the Delft University of Technology.
Amsterdam, the Hague, Tilburg and Twente are among cities that plan to install urban windmills in 2003, mostly small-scale projects.
"First we want to see how it works out," said Andre Struker of Amsterdam's Environmental Department. "It's still a bit symbolic, a way of bringing wind energy closer to the people."
The prospect of an environmentally correct energy source has attracted Dutch energy companies. Cor De Ruiter, a spokesman for one company, Eneco, said research has indicated there are 50,000 locations in the Netherlands where small urban turbines could be installed.
The new windmills pay for themselves in about five years, according to the Dutch manufacturer Prowin. And as the technology improves, prices will drop further. The smallest models weigh roughly 440 pounds and can be installed on a roof in a few hours.
"All the technical problems are behind us now," says Dick Sidler, an engineer at Core International, another company that builds the latest-generation turbines.
Current models cost $5,000 to $12,000. The windmill in Ede can generate about 5,000 kilowattt hours of energy per year, which would cost $900 if taken from the grid powered by fossil fuels.
That's more than enough for the average household using about 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, compared to 10,000 in the United States. But most new windmills are designed more for public or commercial buildings than homes.
With fewer moving parts than their rural kin, urban turbines generally require less maintenance. And because the energy they generate is close to where it is consumed, less electricity dissipates while crossing transmission lines.
Problems remain, however — notably public safety concerns.
"Just one accident would be enough" to quash enthusiasm for the idea, said Mertens, the researcher. One theoretical danger, runaway windmill blades, could be averted by covering the turbines with gratings, he said, but the effect of vibrations on local buildings and inhabitants is still unknown.
"I think the thing about wind power is that you can use ... right in your back yard," said Corin Millais of the European Wind Energy Association, who doubts that " anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their back yard."
