Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More
Wind turbines are a great and relatively cheap source of alternative energy, but some people are just not willing to give up their pristine landscape for a grid of wind turbines, even though I think they look pretty damn gorgeous personally. Others worry about the low-frequency vibrations the turbines emit. Whatever reasons wind turbines might negatively affect the populace, Atelier DNA eliminates them all with their Windstalk concept.
The turbine-free Windstalk concept consists of 1,203 carbon fiber reinforced resin poles which stand 55 meters high. And as for wind power being an eye sore, the Windstalk is, quite to the contrary, elegantly composed and topped with an LED light which not only allows quick moderation of the pole’s power performance, but looks pretty as well. The Windstalks are packed with a stack of piezoelectric ceramic discs, connected by a cable throughout the length of the pole. When the poles sway the discs compress, generating a current through the electrodes.
The article is a fascinating one and deserves further research. My contempt lies in the line “Others worry about the low-frequency vibrations the turbines emit. Whatever imaginary reason “….Do you live near these behemoths? I can tell you the people who have been driven from their homes from the low-frequency vibrations or dirty electricity from the lines carrying the power from the turbines to the sub-stations are not imagining anything. These are people who are school teachers, nurses, town councillors- people who have even subscribed to having them on their property , believing in the myth, like so many that wind energy is green energy and will not have an impact on them but will get us off fossil fuels. Look whose building these projects, industrial wind projects are built by the fossil fuel industry to ensure their viability. When the wind doesn’t blow- and it often does not, natural gas plants are used to back them up. We are not replacing fossil fuel generation with wind, we are replacing it with more fossil fuel generation. We need to really develop green energy that will not require back up from fossil fuel…but can stand alone without harming humanity or wilderness. Maybe we should just consume less.
Anamaya: I really don’t have experience living by wind turbines, so what I said was mainly conjecture and was for entertainment purposes. The point is that this can eliminate any negative effects of turbine power.
What is the power generation potential of these things? My understanding is that turbines have a high efficiency ratio. Solar panels are great and all, but realistically they produce little electricity when compared to turbine produced electricity.
What are we really dealing with here? I know of many technologies that can produce electricity at some level, but is it able make electricity at a price near that of solar, wind, coal, natural gas? We need this information in order to realistically know where this technology is at and when it might come to a “neighborhood near us.”
Please do a little bit more in depth research before feeding us fantasies about glowing rods that could solve our energy problems.
Anthony: We are not researchers or scientists. We are just trying to entertain and provide some knowledge and geekery at the same time. There are plenty of other sources where you might be able to find this sort of information, but this is not the place. We didn’t create or design the thing, though maybe the designer would be more apt to answer your question. Thanks for reading!
Free power! Limitless and beautiful! I hope everyone who lives in a windy area does everything they can to get one of these installed in their town asap!
This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, besides my kids.
It’s so beautiful.
There is absolutely no excuse for energy use and distribution to be a factor of human need provided by abstract materials technology any more than food, water and shelter. Oh I forgot I live in ass-backwards world where billions are homeless, hungry and drinking polluted water by accident, not to mention paying out the ass for dirty corporate energy.
No offense, but as for beautiful, try going for a walk in a natural forest (if you can find one) and really look around at what a wonder this earth we befoul. There are no excuses. We do know better. We always have.
Yes I’m a hypocrite, well fed sitting on my ass in front of a computer sucking juice.
Can I have one for the top of my house?
They do look cool. The striking one another though can’t be good for long term sustainability. They are probably a pipe dream in this configuration. Should be shaped like trees and spaced apart.
Can’t wait for those ai-nanobots, they will make everything even more cool, geeky, entertaining and solve all our problems . . . naturally cradle-to-cradle is the only solution.
So how much do they cost? Do they require back up from fossil fuel when the wind doesn’t blow, which is 75% of the time? Why would you put that much money and land area to use, for only 25% of the time that it actually produces power?
Will the cost per KWH produced be as high as the predicted 36 cents for Cape Wind in a few years? Will government subsidies be needed for the life of the windstalk, the same as wind turbines? How much area do they cover? The same as wind turbines? which cover 1000 times the land area per KWH produced as one nuclear plant? Is that land ever returned, or “renewed”? Yes the air is free, but not the wind turbines, the maintenance, or the huge proportion of land used.
You guys may be just geeks creating entertainment, but believe me, this hoax is actually being played out on people in MI and in multiple states.
ALL electric power plants require “Backup.” How long were France’s nuclear plants closed when the rivers used to cool their reactors began to run dry? For how many months did Maine Yankee’s nuclear plant routinely shut down for maintenance? How many months did Enron shut down it ‘s natural gas driven power generators in California in order to jack up electric prices?
To cover for these dilemmas in the US we have regional electric nets powered by numerous kinds of sources, and on occasion even these computer driven networks fail, and we have brown outs or black outs. The smart grid will further ameliorate these difficulties, but even it cannot resist situations of overwhelming demand. The notion of endless and perfect energy supplies is a hoax.
So, are they more beautiful than an oxygen producing tree? In a few years the Bloom Box will establish itself as
the major source of our electricity. The scammers and lobbyists are trying so desperately to get in under the wire to make their millions and sit back and watch the rest of us deal with the aftermath of the wind catastrophe. Shame on them,and shame on us for allowing such a travesty. Destruction of trees, bats, birds, habitats, water, goodwill, peace and quiet, etc. will be hard to replenish. Meanwhile an eight-inch square fuel cell will reign in the future– causing no emissions. You think turbines are beautiful, go buy yourself a pinwheel.
This is the future. The picture is awesome and the parks will be real. Hopefully the production, refinement and use of oil, natural gas, and coal will not have completely ruined our environment and made our wonderful planet uninhabitable by this point.
While all renewable sources DO require backup, it is our intent to showcase our renewable energy storage and retrieval system here in the US. We now have the means to eliminate the burning of ALL fossil-fuels for energy production, recognizing of course that it will take us some time to deploy our technology on a large-enough scale to accomplish the task.
I look forward to readers’ comments regarding our ambitious plans!
I don’t understand why there are so many negative comments here. Isn’t any alternative to fossil fuels a step in the right direction?
Yes Mike, we need all the alternatives preferabily “green” sustainable. Any and all comers. The only one that can leave the house is nuclear. Biomass, Geo-thermal, Hydro-electric Solar, and Wind turbine all can take up the load of our civilizations demand for power.If these windStalks move beyond concept and are a viable form of power so much the better.
All the information about this is not available, but it can not be too “cheap” considering it is only been built as “tourest atttraction” in the Perfect Muslim City paid for by Arab royalty. So don’t look for this to come quickly or cheaply to the commoners.If wind is going to be the future of the power world why would they give up their riches made from oil and self cheap power. That would be cutting their thoats. And I will point out that it has taken almost 30 years for all the kinks to be worked out of the Modern wind turbine. For the rest of you who are idiots who can only critisize wind poweryou can sit there and suck on oil until it is gone and then sit in your cave.. Me I will go with the green options. And be grateful that I am not bent over an oil barrel anymore.
This is a concept. It is already mentioned that it is at very initial stage. We should appreciate the effort to put to develop this idea. The details may be available about the costing and efficiency of the windstalk but one can’t share with all at the initial stage only.
I liked this idea very much and I would like to more details about the project. Even if initially it may be costlier but we can commercialize the technology afterwards.
I appreciate the attempt to have new innovative means for the alternative power
Dear Anthony,
If efficiency was the main consideration for every design, we’d all live in pyramids.