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Renewable energy

Tryphena Absent

19:18 / 19.07.05

Yesterday The Guardian published an article on architecture and wind turbines. I think British wind farms are beautiful generally but Grimshaw Architects Aerogenerator is stunning...

Hopefully some of you will have some examples of renewable energy design that you think are beautiful too.

All Acting Regiment

20:10 / 19.07.05

That really is something. It looks properly avian.

Olulabelle

22:02 / 19.07.05

That is utterly lovely.

I don't see how anyone could object to those.

Loomis

07:23 / 20.07.05

Tre sexy. Mind you I don't know how anyone could object to the normal wind turbines either. I think they're sleek and majestic.

All Acting Regiment

19:33 / 20.07.05

Loomis, people object to the wind turbines near them not because of the way they look, but because they exist. In a space which the complainer has previously thought of as theirs, someone more powerful errects a machine, a symbol of the power difference between the complainer and the wind turbine's placers.

Erroneously, by the way: the land is probably owned by someone else anyway; it was never theirs. The "Me Me" meme kicks in and causes the complainant to see only in the short term and ignore the fact these turbines are pretty fucking neccesary.

Lord Morgue

07:46 / 26.07.05

World Power Grid

Buckminster Fuller had a plan for a world power grid run mainly off wind farms- see, the wind is always blowing somewhere within a 500-mile radius, so if you link all the world's power grids together, they support each other and run forever off natural global air currents for free. You fit private homes with wind generators to take up the slack, and when you're not home, it puts power BACK into the grid and MAKES you money, how good's that? Trick is getting the world's governments to agree that UNLLLLIMITEEEEDDD POWWWWWWERRRRRR is a good thing, even if they have to share, and getting it past the petroleum and nuclear entities. Sigh.

Jack Vincennes

11:08 / 26.07.05

More wind energy :

And, solar power can be pretty too -

Yay Paul

13:59 / 26.07.05

That is indeed a stunning looking Turbine in fact I want one, perhaps not quite as big but...

Anyway, the only things I remember off the top of my head in which the design grabbed me were;

The 'very strange indeed' Pollution Free boat. The cargo ship concept that runs on on solar panels, wind and wave power.

Full story at msnbc

And also The Stingray Device. Not the greatest design aesthetically speaking, but I loved it because it sits at the bottom of the ocean rather than installed around a coastline or just a huge floating pipe.

Kit-Cat Club

16:01 / 26.07.05

The only thing I dislike about the upright turbines is the fact that birds get killed by the, er... by the swirly bits (sails? On a windmill they are called sails). But I expect that that is outweighed by the potential benefits.

Tryphena Absent

19:18 / 26.07.05

I imagine that over time birds will learn not to fly into them.

Brunner

10:49 / 27.07.05

Depends on cost but I'd love to put one of these on my house....

Loomis

12:44 / 27.07.05

That rocks. You should definitely do it Brunner. I wish we could get one but I think it could be a bit tricky living in a block of flats.

Brunner

13:03 / 27.07.05

I'd really love to do it and also chuck a heat pump under the garden. All very costly of course but it would be great to be able to be (near) self-sufficent in electricity.
Plus I reckon the turbine would definately add something to the boring boxyness of my house. The domestic ones are only 1.5 metres in diameter and virtually silent.
A bit more research me thinks....

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