Philippe Starck’s Designer Plastic Wind Turbine
By Wesley Joseph • Aug 7th, 2008 • Category: Household, Products and Shopping, Recent Posts, Recycling, Technology
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A quick news story I thought readers might find interesting focused on ecological, and even, yes democratic design. A designer who has such feats under his belt as designer the 2-Euro coin is now focusing his efforts on more practical design.
The point of the story that was of most interest to me was mention of a rooftop wind turbine. No, this is not new, but the price range he’s gearing the item to: between $780 to $1,250 for a wind turbine the designer, Philippe Starck, says can produce up to 80% of a home’s energy (invest in two of the turbines, and presumably, you could produce enough for your home, and about half of one of your neighbor’s homes (or sell the extra power back to the grid, more likely).
Another online source said that the turbine could produce 20% to 60% of a home’s energy needs, which seems more likely, when you see the design and know that it is a miniature wind turbine, it seems as if the 80% (I know, it says, “up to”) seems exaggerated. Yes, you would need more equipment to use the energy, and it would likely take much more expertise than taking it home and installing in fifteen minutes as the designer says, but have to love this concept.
Two amazing features for the wind turbine is its design, the part anyone might see from a distance or below is clear plastic and its price range! I mean for less than many (if not most) of us pay for a new computer, you could take care of a significant portion of your home power bills and improve your envirohuman impact!
You could probably see a very significant amount of payback for your investment rather quickly, especially since compared to several thousand you might pay for another turbine, these are cheap! Made with plastic? I’m not sure how long these might last or how easy it might be to get replacement plastic (how long is the warranty?), but this seems like one to look into if you’re looking for an inexpensive way to get started on greener energy.
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Wesley Joseph is the primary editor for EHI. He comes from a strong political science background and is interested in the effect humans' actions have on the environment, how in turn the environment affects humans, and how environmental policy at large and personal actions can both change into positive envirohuman impacts.
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Really hope these mini wind turbines start getting released soon. I live in Boston and would love to take advantage of all the natural winds we get here.
Yeah, same here — Chicago has great wind (as does much of the U.S., according to Pickens, in my recent post). Matthew Phillip, our other writer, ironically had been looking at some on Amazon.com last night that he says are also inexpensive, if you want to check them out. He said for under $1,000! So you don’t have to necessarily wait for Mr. Starck’s to hit the U.S. later this year (or next year).
It’s just great to see such innovations become cheap enough for individuals to go out and purchase without having to take out a small loan. It still doesn’t take pressure off of our government to do something about the situation, but it shows that individuals are increasingly having this type of option to make a difference on their own.