The Strata

I recently came across an image of the Strata, a skyscraper in south London with built in wind turbines.

Now wind turbines are gobsmackingly inefficient - we all know that - but the idea that you would make them still less efficient by preventing them from swinging round to face into the wind seems almost to defy belief.

To make things worse, it seems that the noise they generate has led to their being switched off most of the time.

Still, it will stand as a monument to the idiocy of environmentalists.

Comments

[John Marshall]

That Reading wind turbine needs more than 2m/s wind speed to turn it so if it was turning when the wind was at that level then the electricity was moving in the opposite direction to that planned.

[Stacey]

Was Clegg's missus at the opening, after all she has no interest in wind farms ?

[David Chorley]

The same level of scientific integrity that promotes CAGW is present in this snippet:http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077192/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/infrasound-linked-spooky-effects/
Since every schoolboy knows that wind turbines produce gobs of infrasound, the aforementioned building will end up haunted by the ghosts of people who died there.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH CREEPY

David

[David]

So 'a tall building costs much less to build'?? Where did anyone get that idea? I'm no expert myself, but this expert report says quite the opposite, which is indeed only common sense:

http://resources.knightfrank.com/getnewsresource.ashx?id=187f1147-fdc7-4791-88f0-4c5935bb7675&type=1

The only reasons for building tall residential buildings are (a) socialist/modernist ideology, which prevailed among architects and planners up to the 1970s if not longer, or (b) extreme shortage of space, as in city centres. If you are prepared to stack people up in battery cages, with little natural light or green space at ground level (as in modern Chinese cities), then of course you can get more people into each square metre of ground, but this is hardly ideal.

[jamspid]

So how many dead birds up there.

[David]

...btw, in comparing the costs of low and high rise building, it is also important to consider the maintenance costs and lifespan of the building. Many blocks of flats built in the 1960s and even 1970s are now in such poor condition, and cost so much to maintain, that they are being demolished - while much older low rise buildings are still generally in serviceable condition.

It may be said that this is due to bad design or workmanship, which is often true, but something about modernist architecture seems to attract these problems. Even prestigious and costly buildings often turn out to be defective and monstrously expensive to maintain: the Pompidou Centre, the Lloyds Building, the Sydney Opera House are cases in point. Or to take a comic example on a more modest scale, Lubetkin's famous Penguin Pool at London Zoo is being preserved as a Grade 1 listed building, but the penguins always hated it, and they now have a new, less pretentious, pool.

[Messenger]

The Bishop's tweet on the sidebar asked if Cameron's domestic wind turbine was still there- . According to some it was put up in the wrong place anyway and according to this article it was soon taken down, presumably for good.

It says much about David Cameron that he is still widely associated with the wind turbine he installed on his Kensington home in 2007 and soon removed after it generated more in the way of anger from his neighbours than it did electricity.

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/405733/Why-David-Cameron-has-finally-seen-sense-over-wind-farms

[Stephen Rasey]

Google "Discovery Tower Wind Turbines"

There is a Houston 29 floor building called "Discovery Tower" and later "Hess Tower" that had wind turbines installed. In less than six months, one of the turbines broke and fell to the street. The turbines were put on lock down and soon removed.

It is one thing for wind turbines to be expensive generators of electricity. It is quite another when they cannot even pay for the insurance.

http://swamplot.com/pieces-of-wind-turbine-fall-onto-street-from-top-of-hess-tower-downtown-blades-on-lockdown/2011-01-13/

[Neil Craig]

Since turning rotors produce lateral forces that can be very damaging to buildings I am rather glad they are switched off when there is wind. It is the moral equivalent of getting planning permission only if you add a giant statue of Big Brother.

[Professional Strata Title in WA]

Oh my. This skyscraper used to be the building of praise and less criticism. The designers should have thought better.