Case Study - Wind Turbines

ARCHITECTURAL WIND TURBINES CASE STUDY

SITUATION
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) is a world-class
independent public authority which develops, promotes and
manages airports such as Boston’s Logan Airport, the seaport
and significant transportation infrastructure. Massport officials
decided to study and implement opportunities for applying
one of the most plentiful renewable energy resources at
Logan Airport, namely Wind power.

PROJECT
Massport partnered with the engineers at AeroVironment
and Groom Energy to engineer and install twenty architectural
wind turbines at the Logan Administrative office facility.
Two rows of these 1kw, six foot high turbines were mounted
to the parapet on the building’s roof, with fifteen units
facing westward and five facing northward. Their orientation
was designed to take advantage of the chimney effect of
accelerating wind currents at the parapet of the building,
and perform in prevailing wind patterns the engineering
team had analyzed for this location.

RESULTS
With this implementation, Massport’s turbine array
will generate over 100,000 kilowatt hours of annual
electricity with a positive environmental impact from
the associated reduction of 97,500 pounds of carbon.
The unique design of the Aeroviroment turbines will
allow this energy production at both high and low wind
speeds, something not possible with more traditional
wind turbine designs. The system’s energy production
is expected to equate to just over 2% of the building’s
annual electrical load. As the array proves it’s viability
MassPort expects additional rollouts at other facilities.

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