Friday, March 04, 2011

Designers find ways to tap wind power almost anywhere

powerflowers

A gizmag post, Power Flowers to domesticate wind turbines, explores the potential of the product of a Dutch design house, Nl Architects, to tap wind power closer to where it is needed.

While most of us will offer strong vocal backing for the construction of wind farms, that can soon change if someone suggests building one nearby. As a result, the tri-blade towers get exiled to the middle of nowhere – or even further away. Instead of having a few high performance giants scattered throughout the land, NL Architects proposes a structure that would bring a few less efficient turbines together and place them closer to the users of the power they generate.


The efficiency of the vertical-axis turbines used in this design is less than tri-bladed turbines, but more can be situated in a given location. The technology looks promising and deserves more investigation.