San Francisco tilts toward wind power WIND POWER Task force recommends turbines throughout city

The two famous windmills in Golden Gate Park could soon have a lot of company as a broad array of city officials, business leaders and environmentalists push for streamlined, modern versions to spring up at famous spots all over the city.

Wind turbines could soon be built at Twin Peaks, Treasure Island, the Civic Center, Ocean Beach, the San Francisco Zoo, city parks and the airport as demonstration sites for how urban wind farms could help power San Francisco - and to educate residents in the hopes they'll put them on their rooftops.

The recommendations are part of a report to be released today after a yearlong study of the potential of urban wind power, The Chronicle has learned.

"We should absolutely harness the wind," said Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who as a city supervisor in July 2008 joined Mayor Gavin Newsom in convening the urban wind power task force, which is publishing the report.

"Now if we could just harness the hot air that comes out of City Hall and the Capitol, we'll have an answer to global warming," Ammiano quipped.

The ideas proposed in the San Francisco study are intended to help the city reach its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. While turbines are typically associated with farms and rural areas, cities like San Francisco are increasingly interested in using what is considered a cleaner energy generator.

Boston's Logan Airport has turbines, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has talked of installing them on skyscrapers. But task force members said they aren't aware of another city that's studied the idea in such detail.

Expanding wind power

San Francisco has just a few turbines now, but the 44-member task force - composed of leaders in the wind industry, environmentalists, business representatives and others - envisions a lot more.

To get there, it wants the city to develop a wind map of San Francisco to show where the wind's velocity, pressure, direction and turbulence would work best for installing turbines.

In addition, the group recommended the city partially offset the permitting costs for installing wind turbines, offer incentive programs for wind startups based in San Francisco, revise its green building codes to require that future buildings have space for turbines, and look at revising zoning rules that govern height limits for the turbines.

Newsom plans to move forward quickly with many of the report's recommendations, some of which can be done through executive order.

"We want to build turbines wherever we can," said his spokesman, Nathan Ballard - noting an urban wind farm could someday grace City Hall itself.

Newsom, who has made his environmental initiatives as mayor a centerpiece of his run for governor, has often been criticized for his green ideas that sound intriguing, but are impractical.

For example, he held multiple press conferences to support submerging giant turbines under the Golden Gate Bridge to harness energy, even though studies say it's financially undoable. The idea has stalled.

But the urban wind idea seems to have more across-the-board acceptance.

Business support

"The technology needs to evolve and regulations need to evolve, but I think it's definitely viable," said John Rizzo, political chairman of the Sierra Club's Bay Area chapter, who has been a critic of Newsom's eco ideas in the past.

Todd Pelman, president of Blue Green Pacific, which manufactures wind turbines in the Bayview, served on the task force.

He said there's a long way to go in making the technology worthwhile for the average homeowner; right now, devices small enough to be installed on a home don't capture enough wind power to make the cost of roughly $3,000 worthwhile.

"The fact that they even initiated this task force is probably the greatest value," he said. "It shows a desire and aptitude to progress this technology forward."

Another unlikely wind farm could soon appear in San Francisco: atop the W Hotel. Michael Pace, general manager of the hotel, served on the task force and is trying to get funding to help the hotel pay to install two or three rooftop turbines. He envisions leading tours for other businesses.

"The W is such an iconic building in San Francisco, it would have a lot of power from the marketing perspective," he said, adding that he doesn't believe wind power is one of those only-in-San Francisco ideas.

"I think wind is the next big thing, and we shouldn't be shy to stand up and say, 'We're going to be first,' " he said.