Urban wind turbine captures BSI Sustainability Design Award

Thanks to the winner of the BSI Sustainability Design Awards 2007, those of us in urban areas could soon afford our own personal wind turbine to power our town or city dwelling.

Ben Storan is an Industrial Design Student at the Royal College of Art and his revolutionary design blew the judges away for the following reasons.

Firstly the unique design uses vertical, rather than traditional horizontal, rotation. This, in turn, gives a slower speed, which allows the turbine to capture more energy from turbulent air flow, common to urban environments, and key to its success as it enables it to generate more energy than the domestic models currently on the market.

The lightweight turbine is also quiet so you wouldn’t have to worry about annoying your neighbours. 

Storan revealed his inspiration upon winning the award: ‘Growing up in the windy west of Ireland I’ve always been acutely aware of the huge potential in harnessing such a free, clean and renewable source of energy which, along with a spinning clothes line, gave me the idea in the first place.’

Storan’s captivating design in still in the early stages of development, but he hopes the design will be in production not too many moons away.