A developer in Christchurch, New Zealand, has decided to put a wind turbine and solar panels on the roof of a new high-rise hotel, even though it will take years for the systems to pay for themselves. Developer Ernest Duval says he wants to motivate others to start thinking differently about energy.
“On pure economics you wouldn’t even bother. The payback is pretty long at this stage.” However, if every new building in the country put in similar measures it would save a power station every year, he said.
Duval’s hotel won’t have conventional wind turbine - instead, he’s looking at a German-designed vertical axle turbine, thought to be was safer than having a high-speed rotating propeller that could cause serious damage if it became dislodged. The building internal environment also is a factor in the choice, he says. “We are on top of a building. We can not have anything that vibrates or emits sound. It’s got to be very smooth.”
Duval also plans to install a pyramid of solar panels on the roof.
Vertical axis wind turbines are a growing segment of the wind turbine industry. Mercedes Benz recently installed one at one of its facilities in Great Britain.
The company said that the 20m-high turbine, developed by wind energy company Quiet Revolution, was one of only six in operation in the UK and had been designed to work quietly and efficiently in urban environments where the wind direction changes frequently.
Mercedes-Benz plans to use the energy generated to power electric cars and has installed three charging points next to the turbine. It estimated that the installation will generate enough power for 30,000 miles of driving a year using its electric Smart fortwo cars, equivalent to the electricity needed to power two average homes. Wilfried Steffen, president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz in the UK, said that the installation was part of a project to ultimately generate 10 per cent of the company’s energy onsite through a combination of wind energy, ground-source heat pumps and solar water heating.
From London to New Zealand, vertical axis wind turbines appear to be gaining popularity as a way for just about any business to get in on the generation of power from the wind.
