Sunday, December 7, 2008

Shhh ... the urban windmills are coming



I love commercial wind turbines. They're big, beautiful, majestic. But I don't live by one. And I don't really know what it's like to live by one, or more. 

I know they can be noisy. There's a flicker effect from sunlight and blades that can drive you nuts. They change landscapes. They can make rural settings seem industrial. 

But the field of wind turbines is moving from, ahem, the field to the city. At least in London. Europe always beats us when it comes to this kind of stuff. 

Environmental Graffiti has a post about Quiet Revolution, a company that's come up with little Saxon-shaped windmills for rooftops and cities. They have a vertical axis, so they're always facing the wind.

Eight of the spinners recently went up in Greater London, the largest installation to date. They can power an office used by about 200 people.

OK, I want some of these. Especially since my coal-fired electric power is supposed go up by $125 annually in 2009 (pdf).




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quiet revolution? I bet Gen Xers are leading it.

-GenerationXpert.com

Kristina said...

This is similar to putting cell towers on top of existing tall buildings instead of plopping them in farmland, I guess...

Sounds good to me.