February 14, 2013

Hope Unda' Da East Riva!? Yu serious!? Serious as a tidal rip...

When you think of NYC you actually do think of environmentalism, but it's usually along the lines of efficiency and quality of life. With it's progressive mayor for life, Michael Bloomberg (now replaced, but the impact of his 12 years of policies likely won't be undone by new Mayor DeBlasio), party notwithstanding, making dictates that are in the public interest, no matter how annoying they might have become, and it's quite settled limo liberal upper class, and just it's car free big building lifestyle, New Yorkers actually have perhaps the lowest carbon footprints in the United States, about 9 tons a piece I once read, compared to 20 for the rest of the country on average. The way New Yorkers inevitably share walls with each other during hot days and cold winter nights serves in part to make them more efficient, it's like a big Adobe Pueblo with a great public transportation system, and shows, did I mention the shows!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Pueblo_Peoples
(if the above link were perfect, i would have thrown in a subway car with photoshop, but I have forgotten how!)
But when you think of the big projects, the big ambitious stuff, you inevitably think of the vast American West, of the West Coast, places where Pick Up Truck Engineers mix with Cash Drunk Entrepreneurs and dream up harebrained schemes that somehow eventually work... these are open land projects, heartland ambitions.. people who will deny global warming until some tornado or freak weather event finally convinces them otherwise, so they throw on their Carhardts and come up with a solution on AutoCad while the kid is asleep and the horses have been fed... but never count out the romanticism of America's most ambitious city (sorry Chicago, you do go big, but you rarely go refined!) because sure enough, despite New York's, and especially Manhattan's distinctly white collar reputation, da workin' stiffs who risk a bit of slight at a cocktail party for admitting they do something tangible, create a concrete and not just intellectual product, have been up to something on the bottom of the East River.. the East Frikin' River.. can you believe dat! Get da F%$ outtta here! Right next da FDR.. drive by dere every day! up from da UN, like 50 sometin'! Across from dat frinkin' Roosevelt Island.. who da hell lives dere? And dat's like the most polluted river in the world eva! (Translation: I am having a hard time believing you. it's in the East River alongside the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive. I know the Location well. It's north of the United Nations. Approximately in the area of the streets numbered 50 to 59. The location is alongside Roosevelt Island, whose residents I have never met and have always been a mystery to me. It's Ironic because the river is alleged by New York conventional wisdom to be highly polluted.)
http://verdantpower.com/what-initiative/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/tidal-energy-project-in-new-york-s-east-river-wins-license.html



now as I research, it turns out that these were perhaps the first Tidal Turbines in operation, and the first US federal permit to install such a device (hey, it's New York, always regulations!) as they move to phase 5 after struggling with the fortunate problem of torn off blades because there was MORE power than they originally expected,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/nyregion/13power.html?pagewanted=all
(note that that article is from 2007, and they have been moving ahead since..)
but that there is such a proliferation of tidal energy, going back to the first modern commercial project in France in the 60's, that this one gets last mention in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/678082/how_france_eclipsed_the_uk_with_brittany_tidal_success_story.html
but the turbines made by Verdant are perhaps among the least intrusive, as some of these projects actually require damning an entire estuary... but it also turns out, ambitious though New Yorkers may be, that it isn't the first operation to go on grid in the states.. leave that to a company from Florida and a location in Maine:
look at the back, above the crowd to see the interesting helical design chosen there...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/24/nation-first-tidal-energy-project-dedicated-eastport-maine/y477E7mCnIpfBPod5hfKXL/story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/us/turbine-to-harness-the-tides-to-generate-power.html?_r=0
And they are not alone.. Projects in Canada and Europe are installed, producing, and moving ahead with innovation, and there is even a wave power project moving in off the coast of Oregon..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/us/project-aims-to-harness-wave-energy-off-the-oregon-coast.html
http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/reedsport.html
http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/coos.html
this promises to be 100 MW.. that's huge, and in a funny way, it's kind of a de-facto marine reserve as well because you can't drift net or bottom trawl if they are close enough together without a lot of difficulty either..
turns out that despite my having heard of the Oregon projects first, these guys are actually all over the world now with these SPECTER Organization looking things (5 minutes to world destruction, all personnel clear the area...), and the first one was in none udda den Atlantic City! If only Don Rickles had lived long enough to have his microphone be tidal powered...
http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/projects.html
http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/ac.html
Respect, New York metro area.. respect.. thank's for pulling your weight.. no wonder there is always a guy from Brooklyn in every WWII movie.. New Yorkers do get excited in a crisis.

It's been a debate between myself and a friend.. are we @#$%ed, and should we all head to the hills and start canning rutabagas and hoarding ammo, or will technology solve this problem like it has solved so many others, perhaps both, perhaps neither, but this is promising...

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