"Twin Towers" Bahrain World Trade Center With Three Wind Turbines
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.10.08
Is it just a matter of better wind in Bahrain, or did the architects who proposed a replacement WTC for Manhattan overlook this possibility? Just wondering.
Justin brought these to our attention last year with his "World's First Building-Integrated Wind Turbines" post (more nice pics). Anyhow, they are tuning them now to optimize power output - typical shakedown period after commissioning. Will be interesting to see the final figures.
The building's sail-shaped towers channel the strong on-shore winds directly onto the three 29m-diameter turbine blades, which are expected to provide 11-15% of the building's power when fully operational.There's a Bahrain World Trade Center webcam here, but she's a slow loader.Turbine specialist Norwin, which collaborated with Atkins, will carry out detailed analysis and optimisation over the next few months to determine and maximize the generating potential of the turbines, which should operate around 50% of the time.
Via::Building, "Turbines turn at world's first wind-powered commercial building"
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- It's Not Easy Being Afghanistan's First Wind Farm
- 360 Wind Powered Wal-Mart Stores by April 2009
- From the Forums: Wind Power Not Benefitting Us!
- Wind Helps Power Our Flagging Economy
Wouldn't it be better to put Verticle axis windmills on the top of tall buildings. As the picture shows the capture is only in 1 wind direction.
An architecture firm I previously worked for actually proposed using wind turbines as part of the WTC memorial in Manhattan some years back. Their proposal can be found on their website christofffinio.com under Competitions, WTC Memorial. Similar but different.
Why will they only operate 50% of the time? This is something I have long wondered about. There is a single turbine near my house that is only "on" about 50% of the time and it doesn't seem to be related to how windy the day is. Why are turbines not "on" all the time?
all that extra effort and only 10-15% of the buildings electrical usage....and it only works if the wind is blowing in one direction. Kind of makes this seem really superficial to me.
was anything done to make the building its self less of an energy hog? was anything done to provide public transportation to it...how is it saving water etc....
well, I am a Bahraini guy,,
this bulding looks great, and there r so many other buldings,,
well, bahrain the tiny island is boomin,,
check this out about this Bulding,,
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=138906