“Big wind” is just that.  Big.  With big wind comes big power generation.  Thing is, big wind also needs LOTS of STRONG wind.     That level of wind doesn’t blow in most areas, especially residential areas.  Understandably, most people do not want to live in consistently strong wind….including San Franciscans.  

“Small wind” also follows its name.  “Small wind” or small wind generators (SWGs) are defined as a wind turbine whose production capacity is 100kW or less, or 50kW or less (according to the American Wind Energy Association[AWEA] and Consumer Energy Center [CEC] respectively).

Big wind is not a good option for San Francisco.  According to a CEC PIER report in 2004, San Francisco only has a “moderate” wind resource for medium and large wind projects. For a city aiming to generate 50 MW of in-city renewable energy by 2012, that’s bad news.   But a new report issued by the San Francisco Urban Wind Power Task Force suggests small wind projects could yield results.  Placing such projects in an urban setting has generated the term “urban wind.”  

Some observations in the Urban Wind Report are thinly veiled attempts to provide a positive spin (pun intended) on wind (e.g. ”cats are far more dangerous to birds than wind turbines” ).  But overall the report reflects the diversity of the 44 member task force that composed it, and is a realistic and fair-minded attempt to find solutions. 

The report, offers information and recommendations on the following subjects:

  • Urban wind technologies, testing and certification
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Permitting
  • Costs and incentives
  • Potential impacts on flying animals
  • Workforce development
  • Public awareness and possible demonstration sites

The Urban Wind Report is well written and has lots of useful information, statistics and suggestions.  The report deserves a full read, and at 15 pages, it’s pretty quick. 

Among the 29 recommendations the report recommends:

  • The City should adopt the Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC) certification procedures
  • The City should encourage or require manufacturers to adopt information labels on small wind products
  • The City should lead by example and install wind turbines on city buildings – this is how green building in general got its start, and is a great idea
  • The Department of the Environment should develop an “SF Wind Map” (similar to the SF Solar Map) that provides wind data for consumers
  • The City should explore ways to offer permitting cost refunds
  • The City should consider revising city-wide height limits to allow for greater wind power generation.  This is essential – click here to read the CBBG Post From March 2009 on the subject of siting urban wind
  • Permit applications should require data capture to help build the SF Wind Map
  • The City should encourage the funding and use of federal and state incentives (local incentives are “premature”)
  • The City should implement an on-property-tax-bill financing program, (under development, and similar to the widely lauded Berkeley First program
  • The City should support efforts at the state level to exempt SWGs from property tax increases
  • The City should work closely with groups to minimize bird and bat mortality
  • The City should continue to make small wind companies eligible for the Clean Tech Payroll Tax Exclusion and other incentives
  • The City should consider additional services for small businesses and research
  • The City should encourage training in the small wind industry through schools and labor unions
  • The City departments comply with the Mayor’s Executive Directive 08-08 instructing departments to include wind turbine design in existing and new City facilities
  • The City should revise its Green Building standards to require all new residential and commercial construction and significant renovations to be built with the potential for installing renewable energy devices such as SWGs

San Francisco has lots of fog, and inconsistent wind, that reduces the application of the two frontrunners in alternative energy.  To their credit, Mayor Newsom and the City Council seem undaunted, and consistently press for answers.    Small wind…think of it as a million solar roofs, with a spin …

The full report can be found by clicking here, or by visiting our Case Studies and Reports page.

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