City Universities Are Part of Bloomberg's Green Jobs Vision

NOT ONE CUNY IS MENTIONED!  mm

By Michael P. Ventura

Tuesday, January 12th 2010 at 4:10pm

• Scott Vincent

  

Winter is miserable in New York. The arctic blasts whoosh in off the water and cut through hats and scarves and coats as if they're not even there. Other than turning up your collar, leaning forward, and squinting, there's nothing you can do with the wind other than endure it.

For now, at least. At some point in the near future, it may be possible to harness that misery and use it for good. Imagine one day looking up like a tourist at countless vertical wind turbines along rooftops on Fifth Avenue spinning energy to help power the heat.

Cue AeroCity Windpower, a company looking to create and install self-starting vertical-axis wind turbines for city buildings. It was funded with a $1 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop turbines—looking less like a traditional windmill than the love child of a parking meter and an egg beater—that could be installed atop city buildings to harness the winter wind. AeroCity CEO Russell Tencer also hopes it could "provide a foundation for green jobs in New York City" that could keep the tax base warm.