Should wind turbines be installed in Docklands Melbourne Australia?
It is not a question of should but when. Maybe worth investigating is what type of wind turbines or wind catching innovations, can be used? A variety of wind walls and wind turbines can be seen here.
If you ever walked from CBD Melbourne Australia over the Southern Cross Station into Docklands – chances are you had a problem walking against the wind. One thing Melbourne urbanists are still not doing is a windrose.
What is a windrose?
Windrose is a 100-year calculation of solar aspects and prevailing winds in the locality. Such data will inform built form to harvest prevailing winds or break them while protecting pedestrian desire lines. Calculating wind strength and prevailing direction are crucial for determining the location and the number of required wind turbines.
Arbitrary placement of wind turbines can be an expensive mistake. Wind turbines must be located in the windy, prominent, and wide-open spaces. Melbourne City Council had the great intention of creating as many environmental initiatives in their new council building, however, wind turbines did not work. Why? The City Council is located in the valley surrounded by tall buildings and at the bottom of Swanston Street. Its micro-climate did not provide enough exposure to the winds. Link to the example.
To simplify, urban blocks, streets, buildings, and open spaces will have desired sunlight exposure, a pleasant environment, and be protected from the elements during the life of the precinct. Drawing from local knowledge of prevailing winds, wind turbines for Docklands will be a profitable endeavor. Detailed wind assessment research can be prepared at request.
To my knowledge, wind and solar effects calculations are not standard in city design in Victoria Australia. Overseas, however, each plan is required to have the above-mentioned calculation, of the prevailing winds, their direction and their strength over the year, and so on for a 100-year average.
Microclimate assessment
Of course, when creating cities, microclimate and uplifting wind tunnels are created. What then? We then create similar calculations while providing future simulations where we add new buildings, open spaces, and water bodies and re-calculate the wind power influence. Combined knowledge will be included in the newly designed built form and be able to achieve the desired outcome of harvesting wind power. Then you can go ahead and build that new self-sustainable precinct or building or public space.
For a detailed wind harvesting review, you can contact us on the following company link.
We are looking forward to being involved in the environmentally sustainable initiatives providing for NET ZERO outcome one project at a time.