City Taps Current Of the East
River
By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
NEW YORK -- On a recent morning,
a crane sank a 16-foot rotor into the waters of the East River
and divers swam deep to bolt it to the bottom. By early evening,
as the northerly current sped up, the rotor began to spin, a
big thunk sounded in the control room, a green light went on,
and electricity began to pour into a nearby supermarket.
The scene represents an experiment
in tidal power, using turbines that look like underwater windmills,
and it is the first of its kind nationwide and one of only a
few such pilot projects in the world.
"This is just the beginning
of a project, but the project itself is emblematic of a whole
new industry," said Trey Taylor, the president of Verdant
Power, a small company that created the experiment and hopes
to expand it to commercial use with 300 turbines in the East
River that could power up to 10,000 homes in the city.
Engineers, policymakers and energy
experts say projects like the East River tidal turbines are already
placing this city at the urban vanguard of energy production.
They say New York City is uniquely positioned to advance sustainable
energy projects because of the city's enormous need for power,
its high electricity costs, and the pressure for new sources
created by its unusual rule that 80 percent of energy must be
generated within the city.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has
sought to make New York the cleanest and greenest major city
in the country. He has faced setbacks -- for example, when his
congestion pricing plan to reduce the number of cars in Manhattan
was killed by the state legislature. He was mocked when he spoke
of placing windmills on bridges and skyscrapers, and a few New
York tabloids ran illustrations of wind turbines on the Brooklyn
Bridge and the Empire State Building.
Still, he has asked private companies
to submit ideas to develop wind, solar and water energy projects.
And for the past year, his administration has supported the water
turbines, a project many years in the making.
The idea is simple: As water
flows, it spins the rotors and produces electricity. The turbines
run according to the tide charts, which are as predictable as
phases of the moon.
The idea was rejected for state
funding in 2000, only to be accepted a few years later.
The strength of the flows of
the East River -- which is technically not a river, but a tidal
strait, whose current switches direction throughout the day --
makes it an ideal spot for generating power. The strength of
the current also makes it hard on equipment. Swift-moving waters
chewed up the first two types of turbines, which Verdant, a small,
private company, installed in late 2006 and early 2007.
The first blades were fiberglass
with a steel skeleton. Later, another set of rotors was made
from aluminum and magnesium.
"The water was very powerful,
so it broke the rotors," Taylor said.
The newest blades are made from
an aluminum alloy, attached to rotors whose strength has been
extensively tested. If all holds together, Taylor expects to
apply for permission to expand and launch a commercial operation.
But the capacity of the turbines
is not the only stumbling block. There were years of environmental
testing on the site, including an investment of more than $2
million to monitor the impact on fish and migratory birds. Both
have avoided the big, clunky turbines thus far, Taylor said,
but regulations require ongoing inspections.
The city needs new ways to generate
energy because existing transmission lines from upstate are inadequate
and the city's needs are growing, said James Gallagher, energy
expert at the city's Economic Development Corp.
"We need generation within
the city, and anything we can add in terms of clean, efficient,
new generation, has a value to it," he said.
He and other analysts say tidal
power is a small piece of the city's energy equation. In fact,
New York is learning the rules of the game for its own brand
of urban sustainable energy production: The winds and waters
of this port city can be harnessed, but only in certain places.
Tidal power is reliable, but small-scale. Wind power is cheap
but rare. Solar power is unreliable, inconstant and expensive
but easy to install.
Experts warn that before these
alternatives are widely adopted, New York will have to upgrade
its antiquated grid system, which is currently incapable of incorporating
a great deal of power from multiple small sources.
The city's peak energy consumption
is 12,000 megawatts at any given moment, said Stephen Hammer,
the director of the Urban Energy Program at Columbia University.
"The question is, 'What's our goal? How much of that 12,000
megawatts total do we want to try to achieve? What kind of cost
burden do we want to bear to achieve it?' "
So far, support has been relatively
strong on Roosevelt Island, the quiet community between Manhattan
and Queens that is the project's base. Developers began building
that support in 2001, long before any installation, beginning
with neighborhood meetings.
"I think it's a great thing,"
said Pia Doane, 63, speaking as she shopped for fruit at the
Gristede's supermarket the project powers. She said she'd rather
live in view of a turbine than a smokestack, such as those at
the massive power plant just across the water, which she calls
Asthma Alley. "This current has a big force," she said.
"We should use it."
