In Place de la Concorde in Paris, French company New Wind is testing a new method of microgeneration of electricity – a tree-shaped system of 72 small vertical turbines resembling tree leaves. Each one powers a 3 kW generator. If the tests are successful, in the autumn we will see about 40 similar “trees” in various locations in France.
The author of this idea and the founder of New Wind, Jérôme Michaud-Larivière, explains he came up with this idea when looking at tree leaves trembling in the wind in the Concorde square. In his opinion, in the future, similar structures could become more popular in cities and exploit air currents. They could also be eye-catching attractions.
The effectiveness of these “tree-like” generators could be comparable to other wind sources, while their advantage is the fact that they could effectively operate in very low wind speeds of about 2 m/s. At the same time, their construction is able to withstand genuine hurricanes.
New Wind “trees” are 11 meters high and 8 meters in diameter. A prototype costs about 30,000 euro.[1].
[1] http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/tree-shaped-wind-turbines-paris/
