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Philippe Starck may be best known for semi-minimalist furniture, tricky to read watches and a portfolio that could fill your entire home, wardrobe and garden, but the poor guy has recently been taking some time out to sob about how criminally materialistic we all are. His solution: a personal wind-turbine, called Democratic Ecology.
The claim is that a single windmill can generate 20-60% of the energy needed to power a home, and since Starck left the mechanics of the thing to generator company Pramac that’s slightly more believable. It’s made of transparent polycarbonate because, well, that looks pretty cool when it’s spinning and the light catches on it, but there’s also apparently a more subdued version for those afraid of modern design.
Unlike some eco concepts we’ve seen, though, this one will actually be available later on in the year. To give Starck his due, the Democratic Ecology is set to go on sale in September 2008, priced at just €400 ($633). That may sound a lot, but compared to existing domestic turbines – which can cost several thousand dollars – it’s actually reasonably affordable.
[via Core77]
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Wow, if this does what it says it can do, it’d be pretty ******* amazing, especially at that price. Might be the true start of the eco-revolution.
Wind power is only a part of the solution – but a vital part, wind chill
pushes the demand on the power grid up by around 20% or more in cold
weather, wind turbines are ideally placed to off set this power demand, this
is why they are so useful, and will be especially useful should the bulk of
our power come from inflexible atomic power station in the future. Also,
despite their higher up front cost, (requiring grant support) wind turbines
produce over their life time, the cheapest power on account of not needing
any fuel. A typical wind turbine consumes about 1,000 tons of resources in
the course of its construction, but saves about 2,000 tons of emissions in
the first year of operation alone. Turbines are a low maintenance form of
power generation that can run unattended. 8,000,000 birds are killed every
year by flying in to things like power station cooling towers (I know!).Most
people love turbines, and I speak for the 90odd percent majority in my
appreciation of these elegant quiet, and beautiful machines.
How can i bye many of theese wonderfull mills/turbines?
Green Bali greetings Carsten!
So….it is late in November…. September is well past…. where can one buy the turbine?
Quick !!…before all my money disappears in the stock market!
Now it’s December, it’s windy where I live. I am very excited by the prospect of being able to harness this energy. Where is the democratic ecology?