A really badass wind turbine that fits snug on top of tall buildings won the BSI Sustainability Design Awards 2007. All global warming terror aside, who isn’t for electricity to can pick out of the wind. With this new personal turbine design, worries about how ugly and loud conventional large wind turbines are could be a thing of the past.

The creator of this new turbine is Ben Storan from Galway, Ireland. His unique design which uses vertical, rather than traditional horizontal, rotation makes for a slower rotational speed, which allows the turbine to capture more energy from turbulent air flow, common to urban environments. It also means quieter operation, making the skeptics hard of hearing.

After winning the award Storan had a few inspirational words about how his idea came to light. “I’m delighted to win such a prestigious award. Growing up in the windy west of Ireland I’ve always been acutely aware of the huge potential in harnessing such a free, clean and renewable source of energy which, along with a spinning clothes line, gave me the idea in the first place.”

The new turbine is able to generate more energy than domestic models currently on the market. Similarly sized existing personal wind turbines claim to generate 1kW at a wind speed of 12 m/s, but typically produce just 40% of what is claimed. Ben’s design should realistically produce 3 times that (1.2kW) of those currently on the market.

Of course, it could be awhile since we see any of these for sale at the local home improvement store. In our area you can’t find anything like that, but it could be because we lack any real consistent airflow. Storan has high hopes though, saying that hopefully his design will be in production in the not too distant future.

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