Thanks to the development and cheapening of technology, the number of wind farms in the world is growing exponentially. People are used to huge wind turbines, which have already become part of the landscape of coastal areas or offshore areas. But unlike solar panels, wind turbines are not widespread in private households because they are cumbersome and noisy.
Designer and entrepreneur Joe Doucet proposed his own solution to this problem: instead of turbines with huge blades on tall towers, you should use a flat array of wind turbines that can be integrated into the walls of buildings.
The wind-generating wall consists of many small rectangular panels, each rotating along its axis. The developer says he has already built the first working model, which consists of 25 vertical mini-wind turbines that collectively capture air currents.
The prototype is 7.5 meters long and 2.5 meters high, but is easily scalable to any size. For example, one such modular panel can be interconnected with others, similar to the way individual solar panels are used on rooftop installations.
Although the installation looks like a fancy kinetic artinstallation, Dose claims that the average American home with one such wall can meet its annual energy needs (about 10,000 kWh per year). These results have not been independently verified, so they should be taken with a degree of skepticism. In urban environments, high winds are weakened by tall buildings and other obstacles, and computer simulations may show different simulation results due to incorrect inputs.
Nevertheless, the designer claims that his invention will work effectively on large commercial buildings such as shopping malls and supermarkets – even inside built-up and congested cities. Conventional wind turbines take up a lot of space, can be noisy and spoil the urban landscape. Wall-mounted turbines can be an acceptable compromise – unless, of course, they mesmerize people with their rotating panels.
What’s more, such wind turbines with aluminum plates could also frame roads and highways, taking advantage of the airflow movements generated by traffic.
The developer is currently negotiating with several manufacturers to bring their prototype to market. When combined with solar panels, such mini-wind walls can significantly reduce the city’s carbon footprint.