Your Own Personal Wind Turbine

MikeChino writes "After two years of work, celebrated super-designer Philippe Starck has just unveiled two 'Revolutionair' wind turbines. Available in a 400W quadrangular turbine and a 1KW helicoidal version, each is designed so that anyone can put them in their yards, gardens or on roofs to generate power for their home. Starck has become a household name for his product designs, which raises the question — are the days of the designer wind turbine before us?"

And...

[clone53421]

Hopefully most of the birds it kills will end up in the neighbour’s yard.

And lose out yourselves?

[CorporateSuit]

"Hey kids, the Johnsons did caught us some dinner tonight! Ma! Fry up these here sparrows into something tasty!"

It is a recession.

Re:

[clone53421]

They’re welcome to ’em. I prefer doves or pigeons shot off the electric line out back; there’s no meat on a sparrow.

Re:

[sewiv]

The design he's standing under won't have anywhere near the tip speed of the major bird killers.

Re:

[Jarik C-Bol]

vertical rotation turbines don't kill near as many birds as normal wind turbines. that being said, i lived with a small residential turbine for years, and it never killed one bird.

Re:

[pla]

Hopefully most of the birds it kills will end up in the neighbour's yard.

I see this argument a lot, and... Well, I just don't buy it.

For one thing, birds have very sensitive respiratory systems - Nitrogen and sulphur compounds from combustion-based power generation kill far, far more of them than wind turbines ever could hope for.

For another, we don't tend to see a whole lot of raptors in residential areas; and the more starlings and pigeons they kill, the better.

And finally... Free catfood. Cool.

iQuiote ?

[Thud457]

hey, if you're going to put a big, scary, noisy eyesore in your yard, it might as well be a designer big scary noisy eyesore.

Wind turbines have a long way to go

[ALeader71]

This will all depend on liability insurance costs and getting permission from housing covenant authorities to erect these things. I'm betting a lot of residents will see turbines as unsightly. My proof is the refusal of the Kennedys to allow commercial turbines near their compound.

Household name ???

[RockDoctor]

Starck has become a household name for his product designs,

Starck? Who that?
Someone in the editorial team (!?) of SlashDot has either a particularly weird (single-person) household, or did an Art-School course in "Design" and only came away with one name in his lecture notes.

I wonder when the first artist's "installation" will appear with one of these that drives a pump to blow air in to further over-inflate the artist's ego. Now, where does that hose go? Smile, because this is going to hurt you rather mor