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The Pearl River Tower's convex skin will funnel winds in a way that produces 15 times the energy of free-standing turbines, claims its architect-engineering designer, Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The funnel-dappled exterior is Pearl River's sexiest visible feature, but Roger Frechette, the firm's director of mechanical, engineering, and plumbing, says wind is just one of 28 efficiency and renewable strategies and will generate less than 10 percent of the building's power.

Pearl River has its doubters. Paul Gipe, a wind advocate, says the wind power component 'is unlikely to ever be done, and if it's done, it will be removed in one or two years.' He predicts that engineers won't master internal vibration and cost challenges, and he points to Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot-high World Trade Center replacement that initially included wind power, which was later removed. That building was also designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Such turbulence may represent growing pains rather than snake oil. 'Many states offer incentives for solar or small wind,' notes Southwest Windpower's Kruse, 'but before you qualify, you have to go through rigorous testing by a third party saying this product is going to work.'

Gipe sees more potential in smaller-scale urban wind farms that have already sprung up within municipal borders. Atlantic City debuted a five-tower complex this year. Just up the coast from Cape Cod's controversial 'Cape Wind' project, the 11,000-person Boston suburb of Hull, Massachusetts, gets 13 percent of its electricity from two towers and will be 100 percent wind-powered after four more are built.

Grabbing urban wind may be less about flashy innovation than about applying concepts proven elsewhere, Gipe says. 'Just like Europe has done for 20 years,' he notes, 'American harbors and piers should be covered in wind turbines.'

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