A thousand feet off the ground, the wind blows brisk and uninterrupted. But how do you build such a tall, thin beam to support a turbine’s blades? You don’t—you float the generator in a giant helium balloon. The world’s first floating commercial wind turbine will soon be hovering over Fairbanks, Alaska.
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What you see above might be just a concept at this point in time, an idea that has yet to be tested and proven successful, but assuming it actually takes off in due time, it could very well prove to be one of the modern engineering marvels that the world should emulate, especially the Danes who seem to be extremely obsessed with clean energy. The image above depicts a wind turbine that works without any blades, and heck, in order to take things a little bit further, it does not even come with any moving parts.
Designed by Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, it is known as the electrostatic wind energy converter (EWICON) prototype, where it is currently on display at Delft University of Technology. Relying on “particle movement” to generate energy, you can be sure that a bladeless energy generator would in turn, have very little to do with noise pollution, and the tired world would certainly be able to do with a far quieter world, don’t you think so?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Detroit Electric SP:01 Is One Mean Electric Sports Car, Denmark Derives 25% Of Power From Wind, 
The cost of energy isn’t cheap as gas prices and home heating costs rise on a semi-regular basis, and one place that we usually don’t think of as energy-sucking locations is the local 24-hour pharmacy. These places need to run their business at all times of the day in order to get you your pills to help with your upset tummy. But one pharmaceutical chain plans to introduce a store that completely runs on renewable energy.
Walgreens is announcing they have started working on what it’s calling America’s first zero energy superstore. The store will be located in Evanston, Illinois and will have over 800 solar panels, two wind turbines and geothermal energy to provide enough power to the store so it wouldn’t need to draw power from outside power sources. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Cleaner Air, Thanks To Metal Organic Material, Charging Your Electric Cars Become Easier,
You’re peering down the main supporting tower of Siemens’ latest offshore wind turbine—which just happens to be the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world. More »
Mankind initially learnt to construct buildings with wood. Fast-forward to modern day and we have learnt to use materials such as steel and aluminum in construction. Conventionally, the wind turbine industry has been making use of steel to build its tall towers. But this trend may take a backseat in the near future.
A German engineering firm, TimberTower, intends to change the wind turbine industry with its wood-centric approach. The design proposed by the firm makes use of timber to create turbine masts and wood panels for the whole structure. The wood panels, in turn, are laminated with a plastic material to shield it from weather. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Wind turbines to bother radar systems no more?, Wind turbines to power BMW factory,
GE and Urban Green Energy might not be the first to install a wind-powered EV charging station, but the two may be the best prepared to take the concept to a grander scale. The partnership just installed the first Sanya Skypump just outside of Barcelona to serve corporate and government drivers with truly clean energy at levels that meet their typically heftier demands. It’s billed as one of the first properly integrated wind-powered EV chargers, and it’s undoubtedly one of the more elegant: one of UGE’s 4K wind turbine towers catches energy from the breeze above, while a GE Durastation tucked neatly at the bottom provides high-voltage charging for EV drivers undoubtedly eager to get moving once again. Don’t worry if you don’t speak enough Catalan to charge up at the initial location, either, as plans are underway to bring Skypumps to malls and universities across Australia and the US before 2012 is over. The only catch is the frown you’ll likely get if you try to plug in a personal car for a top-up — let’s hope the attention swings towards completely green power sources for commuters in the near future.
Filed under: Transportation
GE, Urban Green Energy set up first integrated, wind-powered EV charging station (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
There’s a reason that wind farms are placed offshore rather than in urban areas—the turbines are typically huge, difficult to erect, and need a solid sustained gust to produce any meaningful amount of current. This prototype, on the other hand, will assemble easily and take up little space as it quietly produces kilowatts atop skyscrapers. More »
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