Small wind turbines can work where larger ones aren’t viable (Photo: Flickr)

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order to city departments to fast-track permitting for small wind projects. In an effort to jumpstart the projects, Newsom and Supervisor Tom Ammiano assembled a team of 12 technical advisers and convened a 20-member Wind Taskforce made up of wind companies, environmentalists and engineers who will work to change zoning to encourage wind projects and perhaps propose an incentive program.

According to American Wind Energy Association numbers cited by Greentech Media, the small wind power market grew more than fivefold in two years to reach 37 megawatts of new capacity, valued at $117.2 million, in 2006. Despite the frenetic growth, small-wind systems still accounted for less than 0.3% of U.S. wind installations that year.

Within the last year, the City of San Francisco has installed four pilot projects, including a 2.5-kilowatt system at the Randall Museum in the Mission District and three much smaller turbines on two buildings in Bernal Heights and the Castro, Johanna Partin, San Francisco’s renewable energy program manager, told Greentech Media. The city is also testing a vertical-axis wind turbine on Treasure Island, and is hoping to work with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create a testing facility for rooftop-scale wind. The city has already approved permits for two other pilot projects, which haven’t yet been installed, and is testing wind speeds at 27 sites to potentially develop more.

Partin says San Francisco is pursuing small-scale wind power because it doesn’t have powerful enough wind (or, I would argue, enough available land) for large wind farms inside the city. But, city officials are working to develop offshore wind, which could result in much larger projects. While small wind systems have capacities of less than 100 kilowatts, today’s largest offshore wind turbines are each able to generate an astonishing 7 or 7.5 megawatts.

• Related: “Southwest Windpower Says New Turbines Bring Residential Windpower Into the Mainstream” (e-Newswire, 7/12/06), “Compressed Air Poised to Store Surplus Wind Electricity in Iowa and California” (Power Plug, 5/28/08) and “San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to Build Model Green Headquarters ” (e-Newswire, 4/18/07)