Choppy waters for Verdant Power  

The NY Daily News reports that after years of delays, Verdant Power may finally start commercial operations next year - Choppy waters for turbines.

A PIONEER'S path is rarely easy. Just ask Trey Taylor of Verdant Power about his quest to turn the East River's turbulent tides into oil-free electricity.

Verdant's push to produce clean power by using large underwater turbines to harness the river's currents has been slowed by bureaucratic red tape and two major equipment breakdowns.

But those failures taught Verdant valuable lessons that have the company tantalizingly close to turning on the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. "Everything is learning as we go," said Taylor, who co-founded Verdant in 2000 and now serves as its president.

After years of testing, Verdant expects to establish a money-making tidal-power operation along the Queens shoreline by next year. That operation, which requires a federal license, would place 30 turbines in the East River's east channel between Queens and Roosevelt Island.

It would have the capacity to produce 1 megawatt of power - a portion of which may be sold to the MTA to power the subway system, Taylor said. For comparison, in peak summer months, the city uses about 11,500 megawatts at any given time, said Prof. Stephen Hammer, head of Columbia University's Urban Energy Project.

Starting in 2006, Verdant anchored six turbines in the east channel. Measuring 16 feet in diameter, the turbines operated for 9,000 hours, generating 80 megawatt hours of juice for a supermarket and parking garage on Roosevelt Island.

But in that time, two different turbine designs malfunctioned under the current's heavy pressure - providing initial setbacks but also important lessons.