DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-650285
title: The viability of wind energy harvesting on low rise buildings in the built environment: a case study of the Los Angeles metro area

description: As the global population expands and moves into increasingly urban environments the current power infrastructures have the potential to be overloaded and unable to meet the increasing demand.  Considering that not everyone will conserve at the rate needed to reverse the trend of the rapidly increasing energy demands and people will likely continue to migrate towards cities because of the opportunities provided by their infrastructure, localized power generation should be thoroughly investigated as a way to ease this problem.  One potential way of producing localized power is the use of small wind turbines.  There are many questions to be asked regarding the harnessing of wind power with small turbines including, but not limited to: the economic viability at a particular site or with a particular product, the availability of alternative applications and the architectural and visual implications.  Localized energy production has a number of benefits and challenges that are associated with the available technology and the specific nature of urban sites.  Harnessing of wind energy to provide electricity has increased significantly over the last three decades with the installation of wind farms and smaller wind turbines that are more efficient than earlier models.  Although related technological advancements have increased relative to the input of more investment capital, the increased demand has set most of the current applications and investments towards the development and installation of large rotor turbines, which are not situated in the urban environment.  One question being asked in this study is how effective will the installation of existing small wind harvesting technology be in the built environment.  Another question is will the use of these devices help to offset the increase in demand of electricity?  While still another question is, what will the impact be financially and how will it provide social equity? ❧ Los Angeles provides a unique location for study in that the metro area has moderate winds, varied terrain, diverse building heights and densities.  In this study several locations will be analyzed for their wind energy properties to predict productivity.  This will be achieved by using anemometer readings at recorded heights above ground and sea level, wind shadow documentation, and most importantly the wind speeds, durations and directions.  The existing micro-generation technologies that can be used to harvest wind will be reviewed and their cost of energy production, power generation curves and architectural implications will be explored.  By doing these analyses, it will be determined whether micro wind energy harvesting in a low-rise building environment is a reliable and viable source of electricity (for the specific climate).  Payback in energy production from the site must fall within the projected life of the turbine, as the key element to the site micro-generation economic viability.  However, there are other metrics for viability that will be explored including social viability.  The five case study sites are located throughout the Los Angeles metro area with a heavier concentration of them on the west side of Los Angeles primarily within 3 miles of the Pacific Coast.  Utilizing a vacant site, single story sites and 2 story sites for the study will show the different results of mounting devices at varying heights and in different locations. ❧ The comparison of potential power generation on a site with the output from various manufacturers power curves will allow prediction of the cost per kWh on site and the potential time it will take to recoup the costs associated with site specific wind power generation. ❧ The demands of each site will be evaluated by collecting data on electricity usage from the property owners.  Current energy bills and information on peaks and troughs of energy production and usage will be critical for determining how the price of energy produced on the site will relate to the payback time associated with the costs of purchasing, installing and maintaining the turbine.  The incentives, tax breaks and power company compensation will also be considered as part of the overall viability. ❧ The intent of this study is to provide data that can in turn be used to state how micro-generation in the built environment of Los Angeles can be analyzed through two separate models based on annual wind speeds and on site recovered data to show its potential viability.  There will be some comparisons to large wind turbines to show how lack of cost intensive infrastructure development is a major benefit of micro-generation with wind turbine technology.