The “Windy City” May Soon Be Put to the Test

Wind turbines to be installed on the roof of the Daley Center

by Sharon Parmet

Chicago is known by many names, including the “Second City”, the “city in a garden,” and perhaps most popularly, as the “Windy City.” Whether you believe that Chicago earned its “windy city” designation because of the blusterings of its politicians or because of the frigid blastings that blow off Lake Michigan, Chicago is poised to live up to this name now more than ever. Mayor Richard Daley, one of the greenest mayors in the nation, wants to put Chicago’s world-famous wind to use by installing wind turbines on top of the Loop’s Daley Center to generate electricity for local use.

“This would be a demonstration project to keep Chicago at the cutting edge of conservation,” says Donnie Dann, president of the Bird Conservation Network (BCN) and immediate past Board Member of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). “Wind farms aren’t coming to downtown, but wind is certainly a great source of renewable energy that has a low impact on birds if done right.”

Wind is an attractive alternative source of energy. It is clean, renewable and non-polluting. It is estimated that harnessing wind energy in the U.S. could prevent the burning of 8.4 million tons of coal. Power generated by coal, and the extraction of coal and other fossil fuels has a major negative impact on birds, not to mention its effects on humans and how it contributes to global warming. According to ABC, more than 3,000 birds were killed by collisions during a single night during fall migration at a four-smokestack Florida coal-fired power plant. The Exxon Valdez oil spill killed hundreds of thousands of birds and destroyed thousands of acres of habitat.

“When you compare the effect of wind turbines on birds to using coal, which often requires habitat-destroying strip mining either at prime breeding areas or along migratory routes, wind is a relatively bird friendly choice for generating electricity,” Dann says.

But local conservation and birding groups are concerned about the effect of wind turbines.

According to a white paper recently published by ABC, “Recent studies indicate that bird mortality at wind turbine projects varies from less than one bird per turbine per year to as high as 7.5 birds per turbine per year.”

These studies were all performed on traditional wind turbines composed of a single pole with rotating blades at the top. The wind turbines proposed to sit atop the Daley Center are of a radical new design that has less of an impact on birds compared the traditional wind turbines with rotating blades. The new design, by Chicago design firm, Aerotecture, consists of a rotating helix (think DNA) surrounded by a tubular cage of wire. “This design appears to be less harmful to birds for a variety of reasons, and can probably be placed on a wider variety of sites,” says Dann.

To date, the Chicago Audubon Society, Chicago Ornithological Society, and the Fort Dearborn Audubon Society have all given their tentative approval to the helical wind turbines with the provision that monitoring be allowed to take place on the roof of the Daley Center to determine the turbines’ effect on birds and to record any bird deaths due to collisions with the turbines. The organizations also have secured a promise from the Chicago Department of the Environment that no wind turbines of any kind be placed on Northerly Island, which sits on Chicago’s lakefront and is along a major migratory flyway and serves as an important resting and feeding spot for migrating birds.

ABC advocates for very careful site selection, including making sure that potential sites are not along major migratory pathways, or are particularly attractive sites to birds (feeding or nesting grounds) so as to minimize impact on birds. Lighting of wind turbine towers should be minimal, and if necessary, should be composed of simultaneously-pulsing white strobe lightslights (which some studies have shown to be less attractive to birds). They also suggest that all cabling and wires wires associated with wind turbines should be placed underground whenever possible.

The city’s Department of the Environment has sent ABC their suggested design for the Daley Center turbines and is awaiting feedback from ABC.