Freedom Tower - Wind Power for New World Trade Center
by TreeHugger on 01.20.05
Literally volumes have already been written about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center (here’s one such volume). We’re not going to add our two cents to the lengthy discussion of how the “collaboration” between Daniel Libeskind and David Childs has been working (or not). What we will tell you about, of course, are the green aspects of the proposed Freedom Tower, which will be the world’s tallest building at the symbolic height of 1,776 feet.* In a cabled truss section starting above the 60th floor, turbines will power 20% of the building’s energy needs with wind coming off the Hudson River. It would be the world’s first building to incorporate a wind farm.
Normally cities aren’t practical for wind turbines, since other high buildings create turbulence. But when you’re the world’s tallest building, who else is up there messing with you? Skidmore, Owens, and Merrill (Childs’s firm) say the turbines (shown at left) will produce electricity 40% of the time. That should cover the base power demand of the building, which means a whole heap of electricity doesn’t have to come off the grid. Over 2.6 million kWh each year to be exact, according to Battle McCarthy, the firm that helped to develop the tower’s wind farm. That’s enough energy for a thousand homes. The structure surrounding the turbines is designed to focus the wind and increase its speed by 30%. Green energy is freedom in our books. ::Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ::EERE [by KK]
* That’s still shorter than the 1,815 foot CN Tower, not strictly a “building” but good to know for putting smug Americans in their place. In any case, taller buildings are already being planned; no building stays tallest for long.
An exploded view of the vertical wind farm.
Uh..., I love the idea, but isn't one of the main drawbacks of wind energy in an urban environment the noise generated by the turbines?
Furthermore, not to get all PETA on your ass, but the exploded view above looks like a giant pigeon blender to me...
Why not rock photovoltaics onshore and shift their windfarming aspirations offshore?
"Smug Americans"... not sure where you were going with that but I don't know anyone that's involved in this project that is terribly smug. I understand that quite a few people consider this site to be, foremost, a memorial.
"Smug" was in reference not to anyone involved in the project, but simply to those who might brag about having the world's tallest tower in a "my tower's bigger than yours" kinda way. The desire for the building to be the tallest, I suspect, also explains the use of turbines instead of photovoltaics - the tower's only 1,500 feet without the turbine housing and spire. Residents of Martha's Vineyard have recently been protesting the construction of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, so unfortunately offshore turbines remain a tricky sell.
I happen to love the idea of a taller tower, i recently visited NY for the first time, noise a problem !!!!!!!!!!! i could not hear myself think in that vast metropolis.
I happen to love the idea of a taller tower, i recently visited NY for the first time, noise a problem !!!!!!!!!!! i could not hear myself think in that vast metropolis.
I gotta agree with Mark. I cannot imagine that the minimal "noise" that wind turbines make would be a factor at that height and with the existing noise of the city. Not sure where the idea that wind turbines are noisy comes from anyway. Modern turbines are rather quite. As far as being a "bird blender", studies have concluded that domestic cats pose a much larger threat to birds than turbines. Not to mention the number of birds that are killed by running into all the other man made structures in NYC.
I applaud NYC for choosing to place turbines on the top of this structure. I think this will really open the rest of the country to alternative energy and bring it into the mainstream. In the end....that will be a good thing.
The idea in principle is great..harness the free kinetic energy of the moving air...aka wind. But surely an architect such as SOM would realise that there are better ways to integrate wind energy into buildings? Has anyone in th USA heard of the kinetic airscreen panels? They're panels which generate electricity by airmovement within facade. They actually deal with real presures on a facade, and turbulence, vortices, seperation wind forces in and around buildings. Produce more energy, and can be applied anywhere on a building. Its a new phenomena in the UK, currently in early design stage waiting for a manufacturer to prototype. For a building as high-profile as the WTC, mechanical rotating wind turbines will make it age dramatically...not the best solution for a high profile building!?!
Well,,,, It was all scrapped today, saw it on CNN.. Go figure, plans to do something cool, and for some reason or another, beurocracy will find a way to stall, stop, or ignore it........
So, HAS anyone in the USA heard of kinetic airscreen panels? Haha, a Google search (as of today) returns one hit... this thread.
More importantly, where did you read about the wind farm being scrapped in the new design? I havent heard that and I think its a very important step in the right direction...
I don't think there are many birds up that high.
..I've been on a boat off Denmark's shore in the middle of modern turbines, and stood on land amongst state-of-the-art windmills on the OR-WA border, and these babies are Not loud. At the foot of them you can hear them gently go "swoosh, swoosh" but nobody except maybe the bionic woman will be hearing them that high off the ground, nevermind the din of Manhattan traffic..