[BCNnet] Sun-Times article: Bird Watchers Comfortable (with 10 new wind turbines in Chicago)

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

Interestingly, the reporter apparently doesn't know about the 5+
wind turbines planned for the middle of Lincoln Park (by the South
Pond).


 


Also - FYI - In recent weeks I have sat through two very serious
presentations that explained that Illinois will become the wind
farm capital of the country.  The financial incentives for farmers
statewide to allow big-blade turbines on their land are huge; the
local governments are even more financially excited.  We already
know from too much experience that once the financial investment
has been made to install  the turbine and the locals start
receiving their free-money, there is no way to take down a
turbine.  (They only took action in California because of the dead
eagles.  I'm guessing our turbines will wipe out the whooping
cranes that migrate on their own.)


 


Per the environmental-community turbine proponents: IL is NOT on a
migratory bird flyway.  Thus, there are no birds that fly over
Illinois that could fly into the turbines. (I have been told this
so many times I want to puke.)  


 


 


Randi Doeker


Chicago


 


PS:  For those who may be confused - "migratory bird flyway" is a
term that references the geographic dividing lines of the relevant
wildlife management agencies.  It does not reference specific
flight paths that the FAA has designated for avian flight.  


 


.................


 


 


City planners to give wind machines a whirl 


January 24, 2006 

BY GARY <mailto:gwisby at suntimes.com>  WISBY Environment Reporter 

- Sun-Times

 

Wind power is coming soon to the Windy City. 

 

But don't look for propellers mounted on poles. Chicago's wind
machines will be thrust up into the breeze on the shoulders of its
buildings. 

This spring, planners said Monday, two wind turbines will be
mounted on the Daley Center, and eight more on a Helmut
Jahn-designed building on the Near North Side. 

Plans to place turbines on the Museum of Contemporary Art for its
"Massive Change" exhibit, opening in September, are in the
discussion stage.

 

Bird watchers comfortable 

The projects will provide answers about how practical and
affordable wind power can be here, said Sadhu Johnston, the city's
environment commissioner. Some day, turbines could be on top of
commercial and residential buildings all over Chicago, he said. 

His department is putting together an "urban wind map" to see what
areas of the city have the most potential. 

The two turbines on the Daley Center will supply only a small
portion of the building's energy needs. Together they will produce
enough power for four households. 

"We're monitoring the equipment," Johnston said. "As soon as
that's done and the weather breaks, we'll be up there." 

Renewable power sources such as wind and solar are pollution-free
alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, he noted. 

Ground has been broken for Jahn's Near North SRO, a single room
occupancy building near Cabrini-Green. Bil Becker, the turbine's
designer and manufacturer, said he's been told "the roof will be
ready in April or May." 

Becker, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and
CEO of Aerotecture Ltd., calls his device an "aeroturbine." It's a
20-foot-long, 5-foot-wide horizontal cylinder containing a helical
plastic sheet that catches the wind. "It's almost like a DNA
structure, or like a twisted sail," he said. 

Although wind turbines with propellers kill birds, Chicago birder
groups are comfortable with the aeroturbine. 

Recent studies show that a conventional turbine kills up to 7.5
birds a year. But Donnie Dann, president of the Chicago-area Bird
Conservation Network, said, "This design is as close to zero as
they can get."

 

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