PEDAL: Wind turbine (was: blowing in the wind)

[rmolehusband]

[Porty]

[StarVanMan]

[Bob Jefferson]

From the BBC:

[seanie]

[allaboardtheskylark]

[seanie]

[wangi]

[wangi]

[seanie]

There's some confusion in the article. It's true that building mounted turbines are frequently useless, but that's true regardless of where your building is be it urban environment or rural countryside. To work effectively turbines need a clean, non-disrupted flow of wind, and for building mounted turbines the building itself disrupts the air-flow. It could be blowing a gale but the wind will be confused and the turbines can't cope.

Turbines should be sited well away from anything that causes an obstacle; at least 10x the height away from any obstacle and preferably 20x. That's why, generally speaking, turbines in an urban environment will be difficult to locate, not because towns are in places that aren't windy enough. Along at Seafield there's quite a large flat, fairly undeveloped stretch. A turbine there might work just fine.