Comments on: Chicago Parking Garage Harvests Energy From Windy City Gusts

By: jayjay72

jayjay72 — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 17:34:49 +0000

I can see this garage out my window and I rarely ever see the turbines spin and when they do it’s usually on incredibly windy days. This seems to be more show than anything. In fact every turbine has these really bright lights pointing up at them. I would safely bet that those lights use more electricity than those turbines produce by a HUGE margin especially they don’t do anything most of the time.
The fact that they light up the turbines shows that they care more about the appearance of those turbines than actually being green. It’s sad and hypocritcal.

By: angelop.mendez

angelop.mendez — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:41:06 +0000

oldtymer your link was a waste of energy. It sent me right to this page. They might not have the turbines actually working because it’s off but I hope it does work. My question is if these turbines are or are more efficient as regular turbines; assuming they work of coarse.

By: oldtymer

oldtymer — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:19:59 +0000

There’s something you might be interested in at:

http://inhabitat.com/2010/08/18/chicago-parking-garage-harvests-energy-from-windy-city-gusts/

By: Billy Jones

Billy Jones — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:11:27 +0000

I live around the corner, and so far I have never seen those things spinning. In fact, I hardly see ever of these turbines on rooftops in action. Most are just standing idle.

And seriously, trying to get a LEED certificate for something that facilitates the use of cars in city centers? I mean come on…

By: bantoniewicz

bantoniewicz — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:21:53 +0000

I ride past this garage everyday (to and fro work) and have never seen the wind turbines actually moving. Before any Leed accreditation is awarded, a build should have to show proven results that its sustainable features are working as marketed. I’m hopeful that features like this will become more ubiquitous in future development but I’m also skeptical of actual delivery matching up to the marketing hype.

p.s. The sidewalk tree coverage is also pretty week. Developers could do a lot more with sidewalk/parkway landscaping.