Excerpt from gizmag.com
By Stu Robarts
The Dutch have long used windmills to harness wind energy. A new
concept proposed for city of Rotterdam, however, is surely one of the
most elaborate windmills ever conceived. The Dutch Windwheel is a huge
circular wind energy converter that houses apartments, a hotel and a
giant coaster ride.
The concept is designed to be part energy icon, part tourist
attraction and part residential building. It is a 174-m (571-ft)
structure comprising two huge rings that appear to lean against each
other. “We wanted to combine a big attraction for Rotterdam with a
state-of-the-art sustainable concept,” explains Lennart Graaff of the
Dutch Windwheel Corporation, to Gizmag.
The larger outer ring houses 40 pods on rails that move around the
ring and provide those who visit with views of Rotterdam and its port.
The smaller inner ring, meanwhile, houses 72 apartments, a 160-room
hotel across seven floors and a panoramic restaurant and viewing
gallery. Perhaps most remarkable feature of of all, however, is a huge
“bladeless turbine” that spans the center smaller ring.
Although this may look and sound like some of the more out-there architectural concepts that Gizmag has featured, it is actually based on existing (albeit prototypical) technology. The electrostatic wind energy convertor (EWICON)
was developed at Delft Technical University and generates electricity
by harnessing the movement of charged water droplets in the wind. Its
lack of moving parts makes it noiseless and easier to maintain than
traditional turbines.
Dhiradj Djairam, of the TU Delft team that developed the EWICON,
tells Gizmag that the Dutch Windwheel Corporation has expressed “a
serious interest” in the technology. Djairam says he has provided an
explanation of the technology to the organization and provided a rough
outline for a realistic research and development program. To date, only
small-scale research projects have been carried out, with additional
funding opportunities being explored.
The Dutch Windwheel concept has other sustainable aspects, too.
Photovoltaic thermal hybrid panels would be used to contribute to the
generation of electricity, and rainwater would be collected for use in
the building. The Dutch Windwheel Corporation says the building itself
is designed to be built with locally-sourced materials, and in such a
way as it could ultimately be disassembled and re-used elsewhere.
Among the other features of the design are space for commercial
functions in the structure’s plinth, and foundations that are
underwater, making it it look as though the structure is floating.
We’re
told that the amount of power the Dutch Windwheel will require to run –
and be able to generate – is not yet clear. Likewise, the final
technologies and additional sustainability features that would be
present in the building have yet to be finalized…
Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AscensionEarth2012/~3/7W7sj2eQ68I/windwheel-concept-combines-tourist.html
Windwheel concept combines tourist attraction with "silent turbine"
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