Concrete bunkers were built around San Francisco Bay beginning in the late 1800’s to defend development in the Bay Area. The bunkers, more commonly known as batteries, were never called into service, but nonetheless were maintained until the late 1940’s. These historic structures have fallen into disrepair and due to their proximity to strong sea winds have deteriorated significantly.
Because they are situated with a clear trajectory to the sea, the batteries also enjoy steady wind exposure, one ideally suited for generation of wind power. We are proposing to erect beautiful vertical wind turbines on the batteries near the Presidio of San Francisco. Currently in the United States wind farms are being constructed far from the point of use for the energy generated. Our small scale approach will generate power very close to where it will be consumed.
The now defunct cannon bases could serve as support for the turbine towers, and the interior of the batteries could house the switch gear for transforming the wind generated direct current to alternating current to be used to power buildings in the Presidio. A display depicting the historic use of the batteries could be included as well.
Our proposal is a kind of “swords to ploughshares” approach for adaptive reuse of the historic bunkers. We are calling the idea recycled batteries.
