The higher up a wind turbine is placed, generally the better the wind speed. Cities have an abundance of suitable places to install wind turbines – on skyscrapers, high rise buildings and other similar structures. Additionally, building rooftops often go under-utilized and make perfect places to install solar panel arrays. For example, Energy Matters has installed two 1,050 kW solar power systems on the roof their head office in Melbourne.
New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has floated the idea of a large scale renewable energy program for New York city that would include placing wind turbines on city bridges and solar panels on skyscrapers. Bloomberg recently reminded NYC residents of the massive blackout in 2003 that affected 50 million people across North America; which was due to a severely over-taxed power grid.
Bloomberg believes that increasing rooftop grid connect solar power production alone could meet an estimated 20 percent of the city’s rapidly growing electricity requirements. Other aspects of his proposal include generating power from the tides of the Hudson and East Rivers (already a pilot project) and tapping into geothermal energy.
As our cities’ population continue to explode – over half of all people on our planet now live in cities – electricity supply is becoming a major issue; not just for New York. In order for countries to meet their carbon emission reduction targets; coal fired power generation is simply not an option and renewable energy strategies such as Bloomberg is suggesting may be the only way to meet the challenge.
