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Mayor Bloomberg Chasing Windmills (Literally!)
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 20, 2008
Modified Aug 20, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 20, 2008
Modified Aug 20, 2008
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Mayor Bloomberg took another step in introducing green ideas for New York City by announcing the city would start looking at off-shore windfarms. Or maybe those wind turbines could be a lot closer. From his speech at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas:
Perhaps companies will want to put windfarms atop our bridges and skyscrapers, or use the enormous potential of powerful off-shore winds miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, where turbines could generate roughly twice the energy that land-based windfarms can. Windfarms located far off our shores, some evidence shows, could meet 10 percent of our city's electricity needs within a decade.
He emphasized, "We don't generate a lot of electricity in New York City. But we can work on using less. And in New York, we're determined to do what no other city has ever attempted, and that is to keep our energy usage at or near its current level even as our population grows," and added, "I think it would be a thing of beauty if, when Lady Liberty looks out on the horizon, she not only welcomes new immigrants, but lights their way with a torch powered by an ocean windfarm."
While no specific bridges or buildings have been singled out for wind turbines (and even Bloomberg admitted it wasn't a sure thing)--but the NY Times reports "the city was eyeing the generally windy coast off Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island for turbines." And Rohit Aggarwala, director of Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, tells the Times smaller building turbines can be "so small that people think they are part of the design...If rooftop wind can make it anywhere, this is a great city. We have a lot of tall buildings.”
NYU director environmental studies Dale Jamieson told the Post,"This isn't a wild idea at all. Wind energy is something we know how to do." And last month, the New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about a Danish community's "victory over carbon emissions," which includes using windmills.
Tagged
mayor bloomberg
nyc
renewable energy
wind farms
wind power
windfarm
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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