The potential use of wind turbines at the inactive hazardous waste sites in Erie and Niagara counties of New York State

The installation of modern, commercial scale wind turbines on or next to Eire and Niagara County's many inactive hazardous waste sites (IHWS) is investigated. This approach would be an example of the U.S. Department of Energy's "Brightfield" concept, where brownfields and other less desirable properties (such as IHWS) would be employed to produce renewable energy using non-polluting technologies.; All IHWS within the two counties were examined with respect to their wind resource and property size by means of both a scoring and base electrical production cost set of methodologies. Wind resources were obtained from the New York State Wind Map, and/or from existing wind speed data where applicable. All sites were then ranked in a more preferred to less preferred order, and a new, very simple ranking method was noticed and is described. The estimated production costs were then compared to those of the three existing New York State wind farms, as well as with natural gas derived electricity in the state.* (Abstract shortened by UMI.); *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat.