14 DAY TRIAL // Renewables are a solid bet in the development of a coal-free society. Even if the role of wind farms has been underestimated by skeptics, claiming that their power is unreliable and cost-inefficient, while wind turbines are ugly and represent a mere 'fairytale,' they are still installed all across the Globe.
People walking in Manhattan’s Battery Park might soon spot an interesting change: one of the LTW77 1.5 MW 80-meter-tall (262 feet) wind turbines installed by LEITWIND, an Italian-based company in Bayonne, New Jersey.
Judging by the picture provided by developers, the wind turbine is far from ruining the aesthetic side in any way, as it can very well coexist with the American symbol from New York Harbor.
Apparently, it will be able to supply 600 single-family homes, while generating 3.3 gigawatt hours of electricity on an annual basis.
Apart from greening up New Jersey, the wind turbines will also help authorities save a whopping $175,000 (€138,416) annually, otherwise invested in conventional sources of power.
“Seven kilometers (nearly five miles) from New York City on the Hudson River, an LTW77 wind turbine with a rated power of 1.5 MW will be built under contract with the city of Bayonne. The clean energy will be provided to the Oak Street Pumping Station, the main combined sanitary-storm water pumping station serving the entire city of Bayonne,” announced the developers.
For Leitwind, this represents the first wind turbine installed in America. After choosing the location, developers were forced to deal with their first challenge: salty air that usually affects the parts of a wind turbine.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, experts have decided to implement a special cooling system already tested, operating in an efficient manner in Sri Lanka.
The wind turbine will lend a helping hand to New Jersey authorities, determined to obtain 30% of the overall electricity demanded from renewable sources within the next eight years.
"This wind turbine may indeed only be a small contribution along the path to this ambitious goal, but in so doing, the city administration is taking an important step in the right direction," stated Anton Seeber, the CEO of Leitwind.