It is hard to say how that level of sound compares with other noises like traffic. They look nice enough though I would not like to see trees sacrificed for these things. Perhaps there are enough spots where trees are not practical due to roots damaging pavement and such. The lower efficiency could be a sensible tradeoff IF the overall economics are still sustainable without government subsidies.
There is also the issue with wind and solar that there is a limit to the amount you can use before fluctuations in supply begin to cause problems for utilities which need to adjust to differences between supply and demand. If you have some sort of distributed power using application that does not need to run constantly or on schedule, this problem would not be as big a limitation.

I would accept one of those near my house. . . depending on how noisy they are. That, honestly, would be my only worry. I think they look cool. . . but if they\'re typically turbine noisy, then no-way.

Wow. I\'m not usually into this stuff, but these actually look pretty cool. Assuming they\'re not too noisy, you get energy plus art. I don\'t feel as bad spending too much money for inefficient energy if I\'m also getting something cool looking.

I wouldn\'t mind one in my garden or attached to the side of the house. There are some treeless countries who could use these to break up their dull land masses and become self sufficient. Parts of Turkey, Scotland, the Middle East etc. Mass production could make these very affordable and combined with solar panels could be a huge boon in coming years....and hopefully they could be colourbonded to be green and brown etc

43dB is about the same as the sound of a bird call...

I wouldn\'t mind these around. Perhaps a more practical approach at first is to combine them with street lights in parks and walking/bike paths. A few smaller ones to introduce the general public to them. Before making them as visually compelling as the above design, just put one of the vertical blades on the top of the lamp post and let it do it\'s job.

There are lots of things wrong with this idea. Firstly, there is very little wind resource available in urban areas, especially close to the ground where these would be. I doubt these would ever generate the energy required to make them in such locations, the energy available is simply tiny. We did a study on this, check out the results at http://www.ata.org.au/projects-and-advocacy/domestic-wind-turbines/
Secondly, imagine the levels of maintenance required for such vast numbers of turbines. Each one has a bearing at each end, so that\'s over a dozen bearings per tree. The maintenance would be a full time job for a work crew (or several) and would cost councils considerable money. This is not something any council is going to want to deal with, they want systems that are install and forget. If you want an example of this, think how long it takes your local council to replace the blown bulbs in streetlights.
Thirdly there\'s the safety aspect. These things would be a public liability nightmare. You can imagine all the dickheads throwing things at the turbines trying to break them, or trying to climb the poles for a dare or whatever. The world is full of stupid people, never forget that.
Lastly, there\'s the wildlife safety aspect. These types of turbines spin fast and the rotors are all but invisible. Birds are used to nesting in tree like structures, indeed, it\'s the one place they know they are relatively safe. Can you imagine the casualty rate of birds flying into these things?
Honestly, these are a classic example of yet another designer getting all wrapped up in the idea and not putting any thought into the practical and safety aspects of the design. Something not uncommon with most designers, who are often very \'arty\' people with little or no common sense...

More evidence that alternative energy is *all* about appearance. Just a touchy-feely design treatment to a device totally unworkable for perfoming its claimed task. I\'m a design nut myself, but with a boring, stale preference for things that actually work.

What would look better - and actually generate electricity - would be underground cables to a distant nuclear plant. But that\'s so un-hip.

Exactly right Mr T, these things would slaughter birds. Perhaps if they came with perching branches too it might work?

I too am a bit concerned about harming the birds, but if that were not an issue they look like they would fit perfectly in the superstore parking lots. They are generally wide open spaces (except for light posts) and often far enough away from residential areas that sound levels would not be an issue. They could dress up an otherwise ugly landscape and provide some utility too.