We already know how trees create oxygen, but what about creating energy as well?
A sustainability company known as New Wind is installing tree-shaped wind turbines all around the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France.
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The tiny spinning blades inside the “leaves” accumulate microelectricity from even the slightest breezes. Because of its sensitive design, each wind tree could generate anywhere from 15 street lamps worth of wattage to the power necessary for over 10,000 miles in an electric car
Biomimetic architecture is a practice that draws inspiration from nature’s effortless methods of survival. The engineer behind L’Arbre À Vent, Jérôme Michaud-Larivière, got the idea for his green project when he saw the leaves on the city trees moving even when there wasn’t any wind.
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Since each tree will only cost about $29,000, Jérôme’s design is definitely a cheaper alternative to typical renewability projects.
(WATCH the video below)
Don’t Leaf This Story Alone: Click To Share – Photo by New Wind
Further investigation gives us this –
Each leaf has a maximum power generation capacity of 100 watts, giving the tree a total capacity of 5,400 watts.
NewWind state that “On average, the devices will produce between 1,000 and 2,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year.” (Giving a capacity factor of ~ 27%; that’s quite high for this kind of wind turbine).
Let’s do the maths –
Assume electricity costs $0.10/kWh, x 1,500kWh = $150 / yr generation (less annual maintenance)
“Since each tree will only cost about $29,000,” !!
$29,000/ 150 = 193 years to pay for itself !!!!
Nice dream, nasty reality.
There are many ‘renewable projects’ that have a much lower cost per kWh than this system [my 4kW solar PV, cost ~ $8,000 & gives 3,700 kWh per yr (21yr payback)]; It’s all about energy density.