Well I have to admit that if this works that this is one of the most clever wind generators I\'ve ever heard of? :-)

Wonderful concept. If it is realised practically,it will be a major breakthrough in Wind Energy Utilisation.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

I think I would prefer to see wind stalks than windmills. From a building like the Burj Dubai (I know, its not in Abu Dhabi), it would probably look like a small meadow. Masdar City has a lot of great ideas. I read a great article about it (http://cleanerairforcities.blogspot.com/2009/06/masdar-green-city-for-abu-dhabi.html). The solar collection systems are pretty cool as well.

When they say \"may generate coparable power,\" it sounds like they mean the same power per land area. The important metric is of course $$$/watt-hour and environmental impact. Both are apparently not important enough to mention in the article, however!

Couldn\'t something like this be used to generate wave power?

The ideas just keep on comin\'! How\'s this for a desert forest? And functional, too. Works day and night, probably makes interesting music and might even encourage crops between the stalks. It will also be a pychodelic experience driving the highways at dawn and dusk.

While the concept is fine, (except for the water part which destroys the efficiency) I think the stalks will simply take one problem and shift it: instead of a low freq rumbling, (largely caused by imbalances in the rotor systems of huge wind turbines) now there will be an eerie whistle which residents or neighbors will (mark my words) find even more annoying than the rumble.

The other problem with this concept, besides the valid point made by Soundoctor, is that because the wind stalks would be quite close together, the underlying land wouldn\'t be usable for growing crops or grazing animals.
Henry

Great idea. It could be used in offshore installations. The stalks are likely to be more durable than wind turbines of comparable capacity and as Davey points out, a similar array (probably with stalk lengths and thicknesses tuned to deal with wave and current motion could be set up to protrude from the bottom of the offshore platform to harness wave and current motions to supplement the wind power generated by the stalks on the upper surface of the platform. Maybe the stalks and the spaces between them could also be covered with photocells to harness solar energy at the same time... or the space between stalks could be given over to algae farms supplied with seawater to convert atmospheric CO2 to biodiesel. If the buoyancy and thickness of the downward pointing stalks were adjusted appropriately, they could partly lift the platform above the average water surface to maximize the motion of those stalks relative to the platform.

The tower/propeller wind turbans kill birds with the low pressure area created behind the propeller. 1200 birds a month in the East Bay installation alone. Where a ridge funnel with exhaust towers would work better. Lower profile less of an eyesore. There are many better designs and they would cause less collateral damage. And produce more power. Why aren\'t we using them?