Clean Energy In New York  

Busines Week reports that Verdant Power's tidal energy project in New York's East River is about to restart again, and may be the first in a wave of green energy projects in NYC - Why New York City's third try with tidal power is good news for the U.S.. More at The New York Times - A Futuristic Energy Plan, 100 Years in the Making.

Good news. Verdant Power is set to restart its groundbreaking renewable energy project in New York’s East River. The news suggests that this and other cities are emerging as centers of green energy innovation.

In 2006, I wrote about Verdant Power’s efforts to build what look like underwater wind mills in New York’s East River. The idea is simple: as water flows, it spins the turbines, making electricity.

But it’s been hard going for the startup. The site has had to undergo years’ worth of costly, meticulous environmental evaluation. So far, no deal breakers — the fish have steered clear. The real problem has been too much of a good thing. The river currents are more powerful — and energy rich — than Verdant’s design engineers anticipated.

Here’s why. The East River is really a tidal channel. Unlike a river that flows at a slowish, steady pace in one direction, the current in the East River ebbs and flows, reversing direction twice a day, and peaking at speeds much higher than most rivers. The current has torn apart two pilot installations. The first set of blades failed; then, with stronger blades in place, the pivoting machinery gave out.

Starting tomorrow, the engineers who watch over the test site from a converted shipping container (parked outside a supermarket they hope to soon be regularly powering), will start installing their third, even-more-ruggedized batch of turbines.

I’m really rooting for them, and hope the third time is the charm. As Jim Dwyer points out in a nice update on the project’s progress at the New York Times, the city is blessed with currents and winds surrounding every boro. Centuries back these were harnessed as the source of power, using dams and windmills. (The city’s seal has a classic Dutch windmill in its center.) And as Mayor Bloomberg recently pointed out, these resources should be the first we tap as the city seeks to build new sources of electricity generation.

No, that’s doesn’t mean super-sized windmills on top of the Empire State Builging — aesthetic concerns aside, it’s too costly to retrofit such a dynamic heavy structure on most buildings. But it could be smaller, lighter windmills tucked in where conditions are good. Check Marquiss Wind, a California based maker of rootop turbines and Hanbana Lab’s workshops to build rooftop wind devices(here and here), a wonderful NYC non-profit working to boost awareness of green energy in the city by installing it, developing new approaches and educating the community.

And Bloomberg’s vision will surely mean innovative hydropower technologies, like Verdant’s, in our waterways. It means solar panels on every building’s roof. And it means turbines on Staten Island’s Fresh Kills Landfill and in the windswept Atlantic waters south off Brooklyn and Queens. In Amsterdam, windmills are a scenic feature of the view from shore. In the U.S. Cleveland and Hull, Mass. are moving ahead to proudly place windmills near shore to supply local power and brand their cities as green.

Skeptics may think it unlikely for a green revolution to happen here before say, San Francisco. But uniquely for a city of any size, New York has a rule that most of its electricity must be locally generated. This is a smart, responsible rule that will make it more likely green energy is built here. The rule keeps politicians and voters honest about taking responsibility for decisions — and environmental impacts — that in many other cities can be put far off and out of site.