One of our favorite sources of energy is the Wind energy which is acquired from wind turbines. We recently detailed the EWICON for you that showed us how we can gather wind energy by installing them in urban areas where it is not possible to build wind energy farms with large wind turbines. EWICON is a great source of wind energy however it does it on a smaller scale and is not enough to power large buildings making them fulfill their own needs at least to some extent.
Now a new approach which isn’t absolutely new is to install wind turbines on buildings so they could produce their own energy and become autonomous. We have seen concepts in which wind turbines with blades were installed on buildings that rotate just like a normal wind turbine found in wind farms however that approach didn’t work out that well. A professor from University of Wollongong has proposed a new way of making large skyscrapers capable of producing electricity using wind as source through PowerWINDows. Professor Farzad Safaei worked for 4 years on his concept and blueprints and is now working on making it a reality. For that he is working with Birdon Ptv Ltd, which is a marine engineering company in Australia.
The PowerWINDows do not have large rotating blades but instead they feature smaller blades that rotate along with the path of the wind. This new design reduces the overall turbulence, structure stress as well as noise.
Apart from the positive points mentioned above the PowerWINDows also reduce operational costs for the manufacturer and also brings costs down for the consumers. The subtle-ness of the PowerWINDows make them ideal to be installed in the urban environments without affecting the beauty of skyscrappers in a bad way. These can be installed on top or at the sides of tall buildings. Not only PowerWINDows can be installed on the buildings but they are also good for wind farms and work there as well.
The concept and design of the PowerWINDows is impressive however we still need to know how efficient they are, which is only possible when then people working on it could come out with a working prototype. Once the prototype has proved its worth we might see PowerWINDows going in commercial production soon.