Full article from the LA Times is here…. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/24/business/la-fi-wind-power-sidebar-20110724 - but the skinny is:
- They'll be big. Really big. The blades could be as much as 100 yards long within a decade, we're told. Or better yet, they'll be "fat enough to fit a double-decker bus inside".
- They'll also be small. Home-scale wind turbines might be shorter than a basketball player. And apparently a recent CalTech study showed that vertical wind turbines, set close together at lower heights, can generate just as much energy as taller, more traditional pinwheels.
- They'll move in strange patterns. One prototype has blades that move in a figure eight.
- They'll be strangely shaped. They'll look like "a giant inflatable hamster wheel" or "a spiral staircase wrapped in a white sheet" or "upright eggbeaters."
- And the best bit. Possibly, just possibly, they will fly. One inflatable prototype is described as “a giant spinning blimp”.
- They'll also be small. Home-scale wind turbines might be shorter than a basketball player. And apparently a recent CalTech study showed that vertical wind turbines, set close together at lower heights, can generate just as much energy as taller, more traditional pinwheels.
- They'll move in strange patterns. One prototype has blades that move in a figure eight.
- They'll be strangely shaped. They'll look like "a giant inflatable hamster wheel" or "a spiral staircase wrapped in a white sheet" or "upright eggbeaters."
- And the best bit. Possibly, just possibly, they will fly. One inflatable prototype is described as “a giant spinning blimp”.
I'm picturing a Studio Ghibli-envisaged world with hovering turbines on every horizon, hunting down the best breezes and roosting overnight on LaPuta.
Want one. Now.
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