The Green Skyscraper

I think Windmills are an amazing energy source. They can be placed almost anywhere and don’t have as many trade-offs compared to the electrical dam or nuclear power plant. I’m not an engineer or expert, though I often wondered why we don’t see them in urban centers. Well I looked up the answer and realized they are freakin’ HUGE (click link to see).

So that got me to thinking. We already have massive structures in urban centers in the form of tall buildings and skyscrapers. Their presence already impacts air traffic and sight lines. So why not put their vertical clearance to use and enable these structures to collect wind power?

Multiple windmills to help gather from all directions.

Not being an engineer, I honestly couldn’t say how big these mills can be, or how much power they can generate, of if the building structure can tolerate this kind of addition. I can only theorize that these buildings are already designed to be wind-resistant, and many new buildings are equipped with counter-weight gimbals at the top to counter any swaying in the building.

I’d also like to theorize that instead of one massive windmill tower, there could be many smaller windmill installations atop the buildings.

Whether or not you’d harvest enough electricity to power entire neighborhoods is another issue. At the very least the building can subsidize it’s own energy use.

I believe this can be studied as an application for new buildings, as well as potentially retrofitting existing structures.

At the very least, those charged with maintaining these mills might appreciate the fact they can now use an elevator!

Addendum: Well I’m happy to report that this has already been made a reality! I hope to see this application become widespread and heavily adopted. View the article here. It’s a very interesting read, check it out. Thanks to Roger!