Jorge Andrade helped install five wind turbines yesterday on the roof of the Logan Office Center. About 100,000 kilowatt- hours are expected to eventually be produced annually by the array, which will number 20.
(jonathan wiggs/globe staff)
Wind turbines propel Logan's energy efforts
Jorge Andrade helped install five wind turbines yesterday on the roof of the Logan Office Center. About 100,000 kilowatt- hours are expected to eventually be produced annually by the array, which will number 20.
(jonathan wiggs/globe staff)
No, those were not propeller planes that mistakenly landed on Logan International Airport's headquarters yesterday.
They are miniature wind turbines, the first five in a fleet of 20 that are making Logan the latest of several organizations on Greater Boston's waterfront to tap the steady power of ocean breezes to cut their electric bills.
From an energy perspective, the 20 AeroVironment roof-mounted turbines, which stand about 12 feet, use blades about three feet long, and each weigh about 90 pounds, will not have a huge impact. Officials with the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, do not expect the first array of turbines to cover more than about 2 percent of the annual power usage at the Logan Office Center on Harborside Drive. They are projected to yield a total of about 100,000 kilowatt-hours annually, equal to the electricity usage of about 17 average-sized homes.
But depending on how well the first 20 work out, Massport officials might consider installing scores more in and around the airport, their maritime facilities in East Boston, South Boston, and Charlestown, and potentially Massport-operated airports in Bedford and Worcester.
"There are a lot of areas where we could consider it," said Sam Sleiman, who as Massport director of capital programs and environmental affairs oversees construction projects for the agency. "We may put a lot more on the roof if these units prove to have the potential we think they have."
Boston Harbor and its outskirts have three big windmills that stand anywhere from 150 to 400 feet high, two in Hull and a third at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall near Dorchester Bay.
Others are being planned for Nut Island in Quincy and a waterfront site at a sewage-pumping plant on the Quincy-Weymouth line. Smaller turbines such as the Logan Office Center units are also being deployed at Boston City Hall and the Spectacle Island visitors' center, among other locations.
While the 2,400-acre Logan airfield enjoys brisk winds, one limitation to deploying wind power there or nearby is the risk that spinning blades can disrupt airport radar systems.
Technicians from Groom Energy Solutions of Salem, which is installing the Logan turbines, found locations on the roof that cannot be seen from the Logan control tower and thus cannot confuse airport radar, Massport project manager Terry Civic said.
Massport is not disclosing terms of its contract with Groom. With help from state renewable energy programs to pay for installing the turbines and probable annual savings of $12,000 to $15,000 from using free wind instead of
Along with replacing the airport's fleet of diesel shuttle buses with vehicles fueled by clean-burning natural gas and designing the 2-year-old $500 million Terminal A to meet the highest national standards for energy efficiency, Massport hopes the turbines will give a high-profile boost to green-energy technologies.
"We're not doing it just for the payback," Sleiman said. "We're doing it for the environmental benefit and the energy it's going to produce."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
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