By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
Rob
Baxter’s wind system generates enough power for a single home and employs a
vertical-axis design that channels wind into an interior turbine built inside a
box-like casing. (CBC)
EDITOR'S NOTE: even an innocuous device such as the one described in this article would be nearly impossible to deploy in Charlestown. Charlestown's anti-wind energy hysteria resulted in a town ordinance that subjects ANY device, no matter how small, that creates electricity from wind to have to undergo an expensive, impractical process. CLICK HERE for details. - wc.
Rob Baxter’s wind turbine is short and squat and designed to not look at all like a windmill. It was built to blend in with suburban homes or rooftop ventilation systems.
Rob Baxter’s wind turbine is short and squat and designed to not look at all like a windmill. It was built to blend in with suburban homes or rooftop ventilation systems.
Baxter agrees that land-based wind power is the most
cost-effective source of renewable energy. He also recognizes that the wind
sector has been stalled by objections to esthetics, noise and shadow flicker,
especially in densely built regions such as southern New England.
Public pushback prompted several Rhode Island communities to enact
moratoriums on wind turbines. As a result, a once-growing pillar of the
renewable-energy industry has come to a standstill, with no new large-scale
turbines erected in Rhode Island since 2012. Massachusetts last built a turbine
in January 2015.
Baxter’s Hidden In Plain Sight turbine design was a long process
in the making. He launched his Warwick-based company, CBC LLC, in 2010, but he was sidelined
after a lengthy illness.
He now has one working model: a modest 5-kilowatt system atop a
building on Block Island. Baxter, an electrical engineer, built his first
turbine at the request of a customer who wanted an inconspicuous source of
renewable energy. The design and prototype was created with students and
faculty through a partnership with Roger Williams University’s school of
engineering.
This wind system generates enough power for a single home and
employs a vertical-axis design that channels wind into an interior turbine
built inside a box-like casing. Concealing the blades has many benefits over
traditional wind turbines.
It reduces noise, prevents collisions with birds and
bats, and eliminates shadow flicker and ice throw. Thus, according to Baxter,
the vertical model has an easier time getting approvals for siting and building
permits than tall, open-blade turbines.
Baxter foresees clusters of much larger 100-kilowatt turbines
built on office buildings, parking garages and shopping centers. Highways, such
as Interstate 95, that run near the coast have the ideal wind speed and
building density to install dozens of turbines within a neighborhood, according
to Baxter.
“Our vision is metropolitan wind farms,” he said.
The system’s decentralized power is generated close to where it’s
needed and therefor costs less to deliver to the electric grid than rural or
water-based turbines.
Baxter plans to market the turbines up and down the East Coast.
Ideal spots in Rhode Island are windy industrial and commercial areas such as
the Thurbers Avenue curve, the Jewelry District in Providence and high-wind
portions of Interstate 295.
His concept got a boost recently when he was awarded $10,000 for
placing first in Get Started RI Pitch Competition sponsored by Cox Business and
Inc. Magazine.
The money will help pay for a 5-kilowatt production unit that can
be shopped to investors. A 20-kilowatt system will follow.
Eventually, the 100-kilowtt wind system cost between $300,000 and
$400,000, according to Baxter.
Baxter expects to have the new prototype up and running some time
in 2016. Once he’s ready for production, Baxter said he will be using locally
made parts for assembly.
“We’re excited because everything but electronics we can source
here in Rhode Island,” he said.