Wind Energy in Berkeley - A Modest Beginning

Wind Energy Comes to Berkeley: Using the San Francisco Bay’s natural resource to generate power (June 20, 2007), http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/news/2007/06June/062007WindEnergyComestoBerkeley.html

Larry Mitchell, Harnessing the wind: Chico firm helps Berkeley with wind power, Chico Enterprise-Record (July 20, 2007), http://www.windenergy.com/news/news_chico_er_7-20-07.html

Berkley has annual daily wind speeds averaging close to 10 miles per hour, making it a viable place to generate wind energy. One Berkeley building already operates on wind and solar energy alone. The Berkeley-owned Shorebird Nature Center uses a small, 1.8-kilowatt wind turbine to produce energy for the saltwater aquariums, computers and lighting. The Shorebird Center will likely become the first Berkeley building to meet the City’s Measure G goals of an 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The wind turbine was donated by Southwest Windpower in Flaggstaff, Arizona. The turbine supplements the building’s existing solar electric system and solar hot water system. The turbine, Skystream 3.7, is specifically designed to produce energy at low wind speeds. It has three curved 6-foot blades that produce 1.8 kilowatts. The tower and turbine combined are 40 feet tall, operate quietly, and have no wires or lattice structures that may attract birds.

Evergreen Development Group, a firm based in Chico, CA installed the small wind-power system at Berkeley’s Shoreline nature center. The center also showcases the use of alternate energy. The main building, which is made of hay bales, has a solar hot-water system to provide heating year round. It also has a solar electric system to power the aquariums, computers, lighting and other equipment.

Private individuals in California have also worked to install wind energy. One couple’s Skystream turbine sits on a 70-foot tower and provides them with 400 kilowatts of electricity per month. The turbine cost $12,500 installed. The couple received a $4,500 rebate on it from the California Energy Commission.

Scott Jackson, CEO of Evergreen Development Group, said he recommends combinations of solar and wind power for private homes. Such installations require a sizable investment but can more than pay for themselves over time.

To completely do away with a PG&E bill for a typical, 2,200-square-foot family home might take an alternate-energy system costing $60,000, Jackson said. To cut the bill to a manageable level might cost $25,000. Often it makes more sense to install such a system on a new home than on an existing house.