Comments on: DEMOCRATIC DESIGN? Philippe Starck’s Designer Wind Turbine

By: A to Z Energy ETF » Blog Archive » Bioplastic - Better Living Through Green Chemistry ?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:03:29 +0000

[...] Phillippe Starck, a recent high profile convert to green thinking (dubbing all his previous work “unnecessary”) recently explained his [...]

By: des.gartland

des.gartland — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:41:22 +0000

Dear Sir would you pleas send detals on you Winmile we are a Company bast in Ireland we are in the Renewable Energy Flow looking forward to hearing from you.
Des Gartland

By: alexisS

alexisS — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:34:08 +0000

i think its great that people are starting to think along these lines….forget motive….hopefully we can start desiging products that can attach to reality…cant see this product being incredibly democratic in a low income home in South Africa….and by low income i mean R1500 a month for a family of four.

By: nommo

nommo — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:50:28 +0000

Dale Vince AKA Zerocarbonista.com said this: “It’s clearly designed by a designer not a wind engineer- I think that’s the form over function thing. But with regards vertical versus horizontal windmills, there are some facts missing here. The blades on HAWTS are more efficient than VAWTs that’s true – typical figures are 30% versus 15%. But HAWTs have had more development time. VAWTs are emerging now with 25%+ efficient blades, the gap is narrowing. And you don’t need much height in a domestic situation, just above the roof – this supposed benefit of HAWTs is not. And last, don’t underestimate the negative effect on HAWTs of the fickle wind direction in urban locations – it kills them. In fact that downside of HAWTs outweighs their blade efficiency advantage, by a long way. The future for domestic or urban wind is VAWT. I don’t think it’s this VAWT here though, not to look at it any way. Cheers.”

By: sluggo

sluggo — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:19:39 +0000

Another Starck fantasy, in areas with strong wind there is a benefit, in areas without, very little. Areas considered to be a good location for wind turbines are limited. (Outside san francisco is already a large group and a company wanted to place them off Martha’s Vineyard)That said,this has to be one of the least efficient shapes for this purpose I have ever seen.(for example, see lemon juicer)

By: katieT

katieT — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:33:51 +0000

I live near the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colo. Armed with a pix of the Starke turbine, I talked to the wind researchers about it. We are located near the mountains and in an urban area with trees. In order to be even mildly effective, the turbine, in our area, would have to clear all trees and buildings by about 30 feet — i.e 100 feet up. And yes it would need an inverter to tie into the grid, or a bunch of betteries. We’d be lucky to pull 100kwh per month — a $10.00 benefit. Lots of years to pay it off. These vertical turbines are quite a bit less effective than the ones that look like propellers, which are the ones everyone is testing. From here, city wind is too fragmented by structures and trees to have enough power to justify the investment. In other words, this is a kinetic sculpture, not a real energy provider. Too bad!

By: HeckSpawn

HeckSpawn — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:53:12 +0000

It looks as if he put more thought into the displays for his “democratic energy” than he did for the actual turbine.

By: rubyred

rubyred — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:01:35 +0000

I dont know about you guys, but I did see it on the six o\’clock news today! Wind energy is the investment of the future. T. Boone Pickens talked about it tonight. In answer to drhall, I know of at least one company combining those technologies, but they are trying to keep a low profile untill they have enough product to sell. The technonoly is out there, you just have to do a little digging. For esthetic and cost purposes, combining multiple units make more sense than a single giant turbine. No one wants a twenty foot turbine in their yard. if you are truly going green, you dont want to do it for yourself. You want as many people to go green as possible in order to have the largest possible impact on the environment. If anyone knows how to get a hold of these turbines, or just how to get more info on them, please let me know!

By: drhall

drhall — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:34:28 +0000

Great site … and everybody’s starck comments are just about spot on!
1.) Plastic will have to be very much not polycarb, however, there are
very inexpensive turbine blades using composite technology;
2.) Starck is a master marketing guru and for him to be on board is not
at all bad – with the caveat that he actually produce a working unit,
for a price somewhere under thousand US dollars;
3.)Produce much power? Absolutely – again, start turning off those damn
heaters we call lights (90percent heat, 10percent light), turn off all the
little demon power monsters that consume a good ten to twenty percent
of modern electric only households (two kids, dogs, etc.) AND with a
single wave of the hand, easily hook up ten of these gadgets to a single
input/pure sine – down lines protection and viola!
4.) More forward thinking people will come forward and perfect the imperfections
in this scenario, like using inexpensive multiple units (WHERE there is
enough WIND), manufacturing these things so inexpensively you can
afford multiple units;
5.) Suddenly, the exponential rules kick in – it works, it works better after tweaking,
it’s a damn good idea! and more people join in the fun. Don’t forget, there is
a thing called marriage of technologies, and the photovoltaic panel can shine
even on cloudy days (new tech) so the few hundred watts of wind PLUS the
very steady few hundred watts of sun, the solar heated/assisted hot water,
the backyard garden, the 45mph EV in the garage and the Victory Garden
(for those of us who remember saving buttons and buying those bonds during WWII)
suddenly America can be great again. Really. Forget the oil and the traffic jams
and the hundred mile hour jet around the city! Slow down, grow some green kahoutis!

By: billdakelski

billdakelski — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:18:15 +0000

Unlimited household energy for about 5k investment? Right, this has got to be a hoax, why did i not see it on the 6 o’clock news?

By: get_on

get_on — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:40:08 +0000

This guy’s Having-A-Laugh! But then, I suppose there will be those that will fall for it! There may be many roads to the future’ but this is not one of them! Least way’s not to a greener future. Maybe a future for Starky with the potential bucks it could bring in from suckers who fall for the hype. This sort of foolish trickery should be legislated against!

By: JunkkMale

JunkkMale — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:17:16 +0000

Ain’t spin grand?

Without that name attached I doubt it would have rated a column inch anywhere, nor indeed would we be commenting.

But it does present an interesting, if rather worrying, insight in what that is ‘green’ gets done, and covered, that may or may not be actually worth a damn.

I have to say that my initial reaction to his ‘conversion’ was ‘well, at least the profile of trying is worthy and if style will make ‘em try, why not?’, but then I looked at the thing, and the claims made for it, and started to wonder about the substance. And enviROI.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:38:52 +0000

Philippe Stark, huh? Has anybody really tested this thing to make sure it works, or is it going to be some BS wind ornament.

I have a feeling his “heartfelt” speech was very fashionable, marketable, and brand-right, indeed.

By: picturethis

picturethis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:16:24 +0000

Philippe’s Stark’s designs have always provoked a mixture of contradictory feelings within me. He likes to play with any concept and turn it into a quirky visual joke. That can become tedious and irritating when. like me, you are more drawn to the purist Bauhaus concept of form following function. This time though, I see no reason to criticise the form of his wind turbine on aesthetic grounds. If Philippe S can turn a future necessity into a trendy and affordable must-have, and make us feel much better about relying on renewable energy, then I really don’t care how much money he makes out of it. I am concerned about whether the product will work – so if there are any wind specialists out there who can conclusively test and demonstrate the longevity and effectiveness of this design, and give it a quality mark, I would happily buy it.

By: gerald

gerald — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:04:31 +0000

Looks like an other excellent example of eco-trash! The old master is still at it. The turbine is going to be exposed to lots of uv, humidity and severe wind loading vibrations. Any half decent engineer knows that unreinforced plastic (probably going to be polycarbonate with an acrylic coating) under these superb fatigue conditions is asking for problems. So its going to be just another totally nonsensical and wasteful product, nothing has realy changed.