Wind Turbine for Buckingham Palace

Science & Technology (alternative energy)

Wind turbines across the land should be a much-embraced idea but instead the concept has run into great opposition from local residents who find them ugly and intrusive. Heritage groups complain that they destroy timeless countryside landscapes and vistas. In big cities they deface historic buildings. But a new redesign of the turbine has overcome this problem. The new “Quiet Revolution” turbine, noted earlier this year in Treehugger, is the first with three blades. It is 5 metres in length, and without a pole. Its helix shape and vertical axis will make it perform better in urban areas where wind direction can vary by the minute. This new design will make it almost silent, which will increase its appeal for urban locations. So much so that yesterday XC02, the company developing it, applied to Westminster city council for permission to fix a 6kW turbine on the facade of Buckingham Palace. In the daytime it would be a spinning "flagpole", but at night it could become a glowing union flag hovering over the palace. Watch for it on your next visit to London. :: Guardian