Friday, January 26, 2007

Building-Integrated Wind Turbines


turbine_up, originally uploaded by windswimin.

Blue Green Pacific is a renewable energy company that's working towards making microwind energy generation ubiqitous in the urban environment.

As an intial step, they've installed a small Windside turbine on a San Francisco residence. This is the first residental wind turbine installed in the city.

The heavily monitored, seashell shaped turbine is nearly silent, aesthetically unobtrusive, and does well in turbulent, shifty wind environments - all crucial in an urban setting.

It's a great first step in a promising direction. Blue Green Pacific will be collecting data on the turbine's performance to ensure that the economics are compelling. Let a thousand little wind machines bloom!

On a whole different scale, the recently announced "Zero Energy High Rise" in Guandong, China is also an exciting project aiming to bring renewable energy generation to high-density urban setting. The project, commissioned by the Guandong Tobacco Company (!?!) for their headquarters, will supposedly require no net energy to operate due to advanced energy efficiency features, integrated wind turbines, and PV. Hopefully, it will come to pass as envisioned by the architects.

One of the most intriguing possibilities that Building Integrated Wind Turbines (or BIWT) allow is the use of the structure's architecture to accelerate wind flow around and through buildings, and thence into the turbines, improving their performance. Conversely, wind machines could be used to absorb energy from the wind, in effect providing a mechanical shelter belt or wind break in areas where trees - used for millenia in this role - are impractical.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a great post!

MARCELO RODRIGUES said...

Great news, I've allways looking for something like that. I think such device could help many poor countries which have not enough energy supply.
marcelohst (http://marcelohst.blogspot.com)

André Goovaerts said...

Pourriez-vous me communioquer les références d'un représentant de l'Heliotropic en Belgique ou en Europe car je suis interressé par ce type de matériel et production d'énergie verte dans le domaine domestique?
Une documentation technique serait aussi intéressante.
Grand merci d'avance,
Sincères salutations,
Goovaerts André
rue de la Colline, 5
1390 Grez-Doiceau
Belgique
goovaerts.andré@gmail.com

Carl Lenox said...

Andre,

Heliotropic is the name of my blog. It is not a company so there are no representatives!

One company that makes wind turbines like this in Europe is called Windside. Good luck!

My response translated to French by Google:

André, Heliotropic est le nom de mon blog. Ce n'est pas une compagnie tellement là ne sont aucun représentant ! Une compagnie qui fait des turbines de vent comme ceci en Europe s'appelle Windside. Bonne chance !

Andre Goovaert's comment translated by google:

Could you to me communioquer the references of a representative of Heliotropic in Belgium or in Europe because I am interressé by this type of material and green energy production in the domestic field? A technical documentation would be also interesting. Large mercy in advance, Sincere greetings...

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)

Hisham_Attia said...

Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions (when it displaces fossil-fuel-derived electricity).

It has a great potential in both onshore and offshore wind farms.

Wind power is currently the largest component of renewables generation (excluding large scale hydropower).

Globally, the capacity for generating electricity by wind power increased more than fivefold from 2000 to 2007, and the rate of increase has been rising in recent years (suggesting even faster rates of capacity growth in the coming years). By 2007, wind power accounted for approximately 19 per cent of electricity production in Denmark, nine per cent in Spain and Portugal, and six per cent in Germany.

Our company is dedicated to supply your energy needs by means of Green, natural sources of forces (sun, wind, waves and more). Our team is there for you to tailor your energy (hot water and electricity) needs for your home, factory, hotel or compound.

Hisham_Attia said...

Wind power is currently the largest component of renewables generation (excluding large scale hydropower). Globally, the capacity for generating electricity by wind power increased more than fivefold from 2000 to 2007, and the rate of increase has been rising in recent years (suggesting even faster rates of capacity growth in the coming years). By 2007, wind power accounted for approximately 19 per cent of electricity production in Denmark, nine per cent in Spain and Portugal, and six per cent in Germany.

Wind energy applications in the UK range from small battery-charging applications producing useful electricity remote from the electricity distribution network, to large wind farms producing electricity competitive with conventional power stations. The UK currently gets less than one per cent of all electricity from wind power. However, it has been estimated that wind power has the potential to provide 10 per cent or more of the UK’s electrical power requirements within the next 10 to 20 years.

Our company is dedicated to supply your energy needs by means of Green, natural sources of forces (sun, wind, waves and more). Our team is there for you to tailor your energy (hot water and electricity) needs for your home, factory, hotel or compound.