July 28, 2011
Ontario

Feasibility study fails plan to mount wind turbines on highrises

Mike Adler, www.insidetoronto.com 27 July 2011

A plan to harvest wind energy from atop the roofs of Toronto Community Housing highrises has failed.

Eager to cut its energy costs to make more funds available for maintenance and repairs, the city’s public housing authority created mathematical models to calculate possible savings from mounting wind turbines to 11 apartment buildings.

From December 2008 to August 2009 the authority measured wind speeds on top of highrises at 10 Glen Everest Rd. in Scarborough and 341 Bloor St. W., 75 Dowling Ave. and 55 The Esplanade in Toronto.

Models for seven other highrises relied on Environment Canada data.

Field tests were cancelled “when those models calculated that it would take 113 years for the projected energy yields to cover the costs of acquiring and installing the equipment,” TCH said in a joint release with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities this month.

The release said building-mounted turbines remain a future option, since once turbine technology matures and design standards for roof-mounted turbines are established, equipment prices “should fall dramatically.”

For now, the release said, “equipment costs are high because there are no off-the-shelf solutions.”

A $175,000 grant from the Federation’s Green Municipal Fund paid for the feasibility study.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/07/28/feasibility-study-fails-plan-to-mount-wind-turbines-on-highrises/