Power Flower Wind Turbine Trees Could Domesticate Wind Energy

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/vestas-and-windplus-to-deploy-unique-floating-wind-turbines/" target="_blank">Large, utility-scale wind turbines</a> are fantastic and can generate a lot electricity, but they also require a lot of land and infrastructure. What if we could harness the power of the wind closer to home in an unobtrusive way? <a href="http://inhabitat.com/stunning-green-roofed-apartment-building-rises-in-amsterdam/" target="_blank">NL Architects</a> explored this idea of 'domesticating' wind power with Power Flowers - tree-like structures outfitted with multiple vertical axis wind turbines. These small, almost noiseless generators could be placed in urban settings and serve as both distributed generation and artistic sculptures.

NL Architects has been exploring the idea of advanced wind power generation since 2006 and Power Flowers is their latest iteration.

ertical axis wind turbine technology has advanced their ideas so capture even more wind and become more efficient.

Power Flowers relies on the 4 kW Eddy turbine by Urban Green Energy and mounting them in groupings of either 3 or 12.

These wind trees need less space, can be installed where the power is actually used, create very little noise, do not need to be directed into the wind and have an interesting and aesthetically pleasing design.

Power Flowers could easily be integrated into the urban landscape similar to cell phone towers, lights, electric poles and art sculptures.

By domesticating wind energy into a form that can be used as distributed generation, we can make wind power more accessible for everyone and as easy to integrate as rooftop solar systems.

Less land intensive than even a pole-mounted residential horizontal axis wind turbine, the Power Flowers could easily fit in a back yard.

Power Flowers could be placed in almost an urban setting.

On steep hillside slopes.

In city parks.

Or even be used as monuments. Since the Vatican is the one of the greenest states in the world, they might even approve of this suggested upgrade.

Power Flowers could come with 3 or 12 wind turbines.

Wind energy distributed generation has numerous benefits.