Posted on 03/10/2011 5:29:44 PM PST by PROCON
NL Architects's proposal for foliage-inspired turbines challenges notions that wind farms are rank eyesores.With knock-down-drag-out fights erupting over the aesthetics of proposed wind farms from Cape Cod to Canada, it stands to reason that the turbines themselves could use a makeover. Leave it to NL Architects -- the Dutch design brains behind this ingenious flipper bridge and this insane rotating amphitheater -- to dream up something terribly clever: wind turbines that could moonlight in an art gallery. NL Architects's proposal for foliage-inspired turbines challenges notions that wind farms are rank eyesores.With knock-down-drag-out fights erupting over the aesthetics of proposed wind farms from Cape Cod to Canada, it stands to reason that the turbines themselves could use a makeover. Leave it to NL Architects -- the Dutch design brains behind this ingenious flipper bridge and this insane rotating amphitheater -- to dream up something terribly clever: wind turbines that could moonlight in an art gallery. Power Flowers are the result of what the architects describe as "an ongoing investigation into the sculptural potential of wind energy." The question, they say, is this: "Can we turn windmills into objects of desire?" Their idea is to cluster egg-beater turbines on a lanky fixture to evoke delicate buds on a tree. Far from the eerily isolated wind farms of California and beyond, the trees would be "planted" smack dab in the middle of cities -- in parks, along boulevards, and around homes. Think of them as the new family oak for an environmentally minded age. The turbines NL Architects have in mind here are a special brand called Eddy that harvest wind whipping in every direction and can be mounted pretty much anywhere (compared with propeller blade turbines, which generally require significant armature and lots of open space). Each tree features either three or 12 turbines that can generate 13,680 kilowatt hours and 55,000 kilowatt hours, respectively, of power a year. That's not much compared with wind farms like that of the San Gorgonio Pass, in California, which has historically delivered more than 700 million kilowatt hours a year. But if cities start sprinkling trees here and there, they'll be giving their energy portfolios a nice little blast of renewable power -- presumably without raising the hackles of the local NIMBY crowd. NL Architects's Kamiel Klaasse tells us in an email that they're in talks with the Amsterdam government about implementing Power Flowers (even though the trees are just a concept at this point). "This turns out to be not exactly a rapid process," he says, "so hopefully other interested people will contact us." Hint, hint!
Ping-a-ling!
Like a salad shooter for birds.
It’s the noise that people dislike the most. But yeah it does also waste a heck of a lot of birds
There are videos out there of them falling down.
Imagine the gawd awful “MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM”... or “woopwoopwooopwoopwoop” when one of the blades going out of balance.
I don’t think the park people will be smiling with the noise and the bird guts raining down on them.
Why are the “artists” (advertisers of this scheme!) putting their women in burkas and headscarves - prominently right in front of the admiring crowds?
Will they still be a lovely clogged with newspapers, McDonald wrappers and Wal-Mart bags?
Maybe they could charge for ad space.
Hell NO!!!!
Art sucks!
‘Like a salad shooter for birds.’
I know where to set shop selling golf umbrellas and ear plugs. Just outside the “tree line”
So, are they going to stick these things in Nantucket Sound?
In addition to the noise, it is the incredibly high cost. These designs will make it not worth the effort.
added benefit:
shredded poultry for the starving masses victimized by the Baraqqi Depression.
One woman had apparently abandoned her headscarf. Maybe she noticed the Mullahs were on break and is enjoying some sunshine on her face.
...Denmark, the world’s most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power’s unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone).
1. The jogger and the young girl in the foreground are wearing light T-shirts while the people who are watching Ronald McDonald have winter coats and watch caps and toques, including the girl on the right side by the tree.
2. Follow the left arm of the right Islamic woman. Her arm goes under the middle woman’s right arm and then disappears toward the middle woman’s lower abdomen. Kinky.
Since when does cost and ability to provide power stop them from being financed, built and placed?
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