On a trip down to the Royal College of Art Summer Show one particular piece of work really stood out for me yesterday. Winner of the BSI Sustainability Design Award, Ben Storan, has created a revolutionary new design of vertical wind turbine for urban environments. The inspiration? watching spinning clothes lines growing up in the windy west of Ireland.
The turbine aims to be 3 times more effective than current domestic turbines available on the market, generating 1.2kW at a wind speed of 12 m/s. The vertical rotational design gives rise to a slower rotational speed allowing the turbine to capture more energy from turbulent air flow common in urban spaces. The design also uses lightweight materials making it more stable and allowing easier installation too.
The Royal College produces some of our finest designers and conceptualists who go on in life to create much of the stuff familiar in our everyday life. It would be great to see Ben’s turbine going into production and hopefully his design will inspire graduates in the coming years to embrace the notion of sustainability in their design too.
Marco
