Colorful panels that look like bookshelves have been placed above the entrance of a shopping mall in Nagoya, Japan. They are in fact part of an electricity generator developed by Inaba Electric Work.
The structure called "Surface of the wall windmill ecological curtain" is made of 775 vertical windmills and is expected to produce 7,551 kilowatt-hours annually. Combined with solar panels set on the top of the structure, the energy collected will be used to power lighting in the mall building.
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Doesn't seem like a very good deal as far as power-generation vs. surface ratio is concerned. They'd probably get more from a single regular wind-turbine on the roof of the building.
Maybe their concern was noise? There's probably a way around that even with a regular wind-mill, though (although you'd probably lose efficiency).
Posted by: Mikhail Capone on 20 Mar 05
I think the point is integrating design and color with some small degree of clean power generation.
Posted by: Joseph Willemssen on 20 Mar 05
