Wind Farms in Cities
I live in a city, and the streets around my building are so windy that sometimes I struggle to move forward. I thought, why aren't there wind turbines in cities?
The average wind turbine is 265 feet tall with 135 foot blades. They contain about 200 gallons of hydraulic oil. What could go wrong?
Statistically, the majority of fires in turbines are started by lightening. Combine that with the oil, and you have a difficult fire fighting situation on hand. But what about lightening rods? What if you make the turbine out of plastic?
Sounds is a major issue. turbines produce a low frequency sound up to 30db in most cases. Some find it hindering their lives, others just find it annoying. However, in most cases, many report not even hearing a thing. I think smaller turbines are best suited for cities. But will shrinking the towers make less noise?
Flickering of the sunlight as the blades cast shadows on structures could be allowing. Annoying, yes, a major issue, I don't think so.
Failing turbine are an absolute frightening spectacle. This could be the complete reason for no city bases turbine installations. I suppose I would not want to run the risk of a turbine blade smashing into my building.
And in places that experience cold weather, turbine has been reported to fling ice up to 80m away. Below is a chart showing ice launched from turbines, and how far it landed. It seems like the turbines turn into deadly weapons in the winter. But what about building a enclosure around the turbine blades, to catch the ice? Or how about changing the way turbines spin, ever heard of Tesla Turbines?
Ice scatter chart
Enclosed Tesla Turbine
Keep in mind, farmer who complain about turbine annoyances were paid a large subsidy to allow the turbines to be placed on their land. In some cases, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. If they stay on the land is when they experience the so called issues.
Turbines in cities are not entirely unheard of. A few people and companies are experimenting with small turbine installations on their properties. In some cases a sizeable reduction of electrical costs are experienced from time to time. An apartment building in the NYC installed 10 small turbines on the roof of their building and essentially cut their power bill in half. However, the turbines and installation cost over $100,000 dollars. We only see dabbers and experimenters trying out turbines in more residential areas, but I want more widespread adoption. We will need conservation when we all drive electric cars.
There is one bit of data about turbines I could not find. When the energy is removed from the flow of air, how does that effect the natural ecosystem? Although not much of an impact per one turbine, what happens when there are millions?
Cabe
