Gizmodo: wind energy

Tornado Tower Looks Like a Cloud, Makes Its Own Energy

Adam Frucci — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EDT

The Tornado Tower is a design for a performing arts center in Taipei, Taiwan, and man is it crazy. That huge bubble on top is where the theater sits, and the whole thing harnesses the wind for energy.

The entire exterior is covered with curved fins that generate wind energy while also making it look like a huge cloud. At least it would be, if it was selected as the winning entry in the contest to design the performing arts center. Which is wasn't. But still, it's a pretty stunning design. [Plus Mood via Inhabitat]

20,000-Light Remote-Controlled Crazy Xmas Lights Now Online

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:20:00 EST

Like every year, the Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease are now live, tackier and wonkier than ever, with more than 20,000 lights, plus inflatable Santa, Elmo, Frosty Family, SpongeBob, Homer, and even Hulk.

Everything is controlled using a web page, which is connected to the huge setup using X10 power control systems. Alek Komarnitsky says that this year he's using wind energy too, helping with the power demands this thing requires. The system will be online until January 1st between 5:00PM to 10:00PM (GMT -7).

All is completely free, but Alek does it for a good cause, not just to showing us who cool he is and how puny we and our ACME instant tree-in-a-pizza-box are. If you like the show, consider donating some money to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. [Komar]

NASA Wind Map Shows You Where The Greatest Gusts Blow

Elaine Chow — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

In an effort to figure out the best areas to harvest wind energy, scientists from NASA's Earth Science Division have used several years of QuikSCAT satellite data to produce some pretty awesome looking wind power density maps. According to them, if the areas with high wind power—an average wind of greater than 30 knots (45 miles an hour)—were tapped, they could potentially supply 10 to 15 percent of the world's energy needs.

The maps are especially important as floating wind farms become more technologically possible. Ocean wind farms have less environmental impact than onshore wind farms and also tend to be more efficient, since winds are stronger over the water and there are no hills or mountains to block a heavy gust's path. Placed in the correct areas, the farms could harvest up to 500 to 800 watts of wind power per square meter.

One area with extremely high winds is located off the coast of Northern California near Cape Mendocino, where northernly zephyrs are deflected to create a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similarly, Tasmania in New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego in South America have the potential to utilize similar jets. [NASA via Treehugger]