Tiny turbines might provide building power
June 29, 2009 by Paul Dvorak
Filed under Turbine Design, Wind Power Generators
They look like decorations, but Otegui’s concept lattice of tiny turbines would cover buildings to generate power.
Product designer Agustin Otegui has an idea for an organic skin that could wrap around a building to provide its energy needs. His concept, NanoVent Skin (NVS), is to wrap buildings in an organic lattice made of micro wind turbines, little vertical-axis turbines. Advances in nanotechnology, the science of materials on a nanoscale, one billionth of a meter, are finding their way into production. “Instead of trying to build huge turbines, why not do something on a small scale and use it on buildings,” says Otegui.
Otegui imagines merging living organisms to form a complex skin which will absorb and then use the energy created by the sun and wind. Solar power would be harvested through an organic photovoltaic skin which transfers energy to nano-fibers inside nanowires. Power would be sent to storage units at the end of each panel. Otegui estimates the turbine blades to be about 25-mm long with a 10-mm dia. He says rough calculations for each turbine show 0.2W and a power density of 90 W/m2.
Otegui concedes implementation of nano-manufacturing of this type is still years away.
