Reflections: Further Thoughts

One interesting possibility would be for wind turbines themselves to be designed to better reflect diverse local cultures and environments. Historically, windmill designs have evolved differently in different cultures and climates, which explains much of their appeal today. Modern wind turbines, on the other hand, almost exclusively use the three bladed Danish design, almost always painted white or off-white. It is worth considering whether some part of local resistance to wind farms and wind turbines comes from the machines’ sheer monotony and blissful mechanical disregard for their surroundings. Among the proposals that have called for redesigning wind turbines in a “vernacular” to help build local support for wind energy projects are these three interesting contributions from Japan. The proposal on the left for a seaside location is based on the form of a pine tree growing curved in the wind, and the proposal on the right is based on the Chinese character for “human being.”

Image sources: Chuichi, A. et al. “Proposal of Vernacular Design for Wind Turbine.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 90 (2002) 1731–1741.

The discussion on this website has been limited to large “community” or “commercial” scaled wind turbines, due to their great prominence and impact on the landscape, their greater energy efficiency, and their potential to involve multiple owners and actors. Though innumerable designs of small “micro” scale turbines are available for individual homes and businesses, these methods of harnessing the wind have not been considered in this study. Interestingly, a recent British study by the Building Research Establishment Trust found that unless small scale turbines are located in the best wind conditions, the carbon footprint of their manufacturing process will never be equaled by their energy production in most urban locations: <www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/30/windpower.carbonemissions>

The behavior of the wind in urban areas is both complex and understudied. While urban edge sites - including the lakefronts and oceanfronts discussed here - can in many cases be ideal for wind power generation, further thought is needed on capturing energy within the urban fabric. Several intriguing proposals for integrating wind turbines into the built fabric to better reflect the reality of urban winds (London, Delft, Houston) are shown here.

Image sources: Marks Barfield (top left), Sander Mertens (above left), Metropolis Magazine (above right)