Not unlike John F. Kennedy's goal to land a man on the moon, Al Gore challenges the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun, and other earth-friendly sources within 10 years. Here are some links ...
[+] The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech [NY Times]
[+] Former V.P. Lays Down a Green Gauntlet [WSJ]
[+] Gore sets 'moon shot' goal on climate change [AP]
It's clear our country is reaching what future generations will see as a watershed moment as it relates to our current energy situation and how we handle it. In the U.S. alone, buildings account for roughly 70% of electricity use and 39% of energy use, so any discussion of our energy future naturally implicates the built environment. The current state of discussions on our energy future has brought together some incredible minds and one of those is the great T. Boone Pickens, an expert in recognizing scarce resources and future energy trends. Just today, he announced his efforts relating to the PickensPlan -- a plan he explains himself in the above video.
Now, I think Mr. Pickens is definitely probing one of the better ways to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, but I also think he's skipping over an important aspect of this discussion on our country's energy mix.
I've not blogged about this interesting and innovative Rotating Tower, which was designed by David Fisher of Dynamic Architecture, because critics have downplayed the concept saying it's not capable of being built. But now comes news that the Rotating Tower is not only on the cusp of construction in Dubai, but it's in advanced design phase for Moscow and intended for New York. Let me say that again: Fisher intends to design a Dynamic Tower for the Big Apple! If you haven't heard about it yet, make sure to watch the above video. Here's the general idea:
This is a guest post provided by Maria Surma Manka direct from WINDPOWER 2008. Maria writes about renewable energy policy, innovation, and private sector leadership at Maria Energia.
Greetings from Houston, site of the American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2008 conference. I am a guest of AWEA and have spent the last few days meeting several of the 12,000 attendees and visiting many of the nearly 800 exhibitors. Below are some of the interesting small wind turbine designs I found.
I was pretty impressed by Agustin Otegui's design for Nano Vent-Skin (NVS), rendered on the building above. NVS is a building skin that uses organic photovoltaics to capture sun and micro-wind turbines to capture wind. Otegui envisions nano-manufacturing with bioengineered organisms as the production method for NVS, and because it's organic, the wall provides the additional benefit of capturing CO2 from the air.
Obviously, the concept building above would be a new design built to reap the benefits of NVS, but Otegui also thinks the skin would be perfect for making existing buildings greener.
KEO International Consultants has received word from the USGBC that its design for Sabah Al Ahmed International Finance Center (ICF) has been precertified at the Gold level under the LEED-CS green building rating system. The 1.2 million sf, 40-story tower is the first building in Kuwait to be registered or precertified by the USGBC. As you can partially tell from the renderings, the design includes four stacked courtyard atriums ranging from 8-13 floors each. Three of the atriums serve the office portion of the building, while the fourth atrium serves the 200 key, 4-star business class hotel. The tower generates part of its energy from a PV system, as well as from roof-mounted wind turbines. You may be able to see the lattice-work of wind turbines at the crown of the building; I think they're the vertical axis, helical-type, but it's hard to tell with this one image. We'll make sure to keep you posted ...
The use of wind turbines at the building's apex is similar to what's planned for Discovery Tower in Houston. It'll be interesting to see these designs meet reality -- the media world will definitely have fun running video and stories of building integrated wind turbines.
The bloggers at Engadget picked up on the Selsam small wind turbines, which look a lot like one of those amateur ham radio antennas we used to see on houses. This small-scale wind solution is basically a single elongated shaft made of strong carbon fiber. The carbon shaft holds rotors that range in size from 14-18 inches in diameter. Apparently, the more rotors you have on a rod, the better output you get. Invented by Doug Selsam, this 13-rotor small wind turbine can produce roughly 200 watts in 20 mph winds (or more in higher wind speeds). It's currently being tested and developed in California, so who knows, we may just start seeing stuff like this on top of houses and buildings?
Here's some interesting news: a new Department of Energy report claims wind turbines could generate 300 gigawatts of electricity -- roughly 20% of the US electrical grid -- by 2030. There's already a website in support of the news at 20%Wind.org. The report doesn't necessarily predict the future of the wind industry, but it paints a picture of what a particular 20% wind scenario could mean for the nation. The wind industry currently produces about 17 gigawatts of electricity, so we're talking about significant growth over the next twenty-something years. That said, wind industry growth has been fierce in recent years and is on track to meet these numbers if growth holds pace.
Believed to be the world's first integrated, wind-powered mega structure, Bahrain WTC looks to be working. The above video doesn't really say anything, but it doesn't need to: those twirling blades say everything that needs to be said. Read more about Bahrain WTC here ...
Swift Wind Turbine is a quiet, rooftop mounted wind turbine. Unlike some designs you've seen previously, this one has an outer ring and five blades. The outer ring acts as a diffuser -- the wind travels down the blades and is dispersed along the ring, therefore eliminating noise and keeping the turbine quiet. The company estimates a noise of less than 35 decibels for all wind speeds. The 7 foot diameter ring needs a roof line clearance of a couple feet and in good winds, can generate up to 2000 kWh of power (1.5 kW @ 14 m/s).
