Image via Dutch Windwheel Corporation
Wind turbines could soon be much more than just large turbines taking up a city’s skyline, with one company developing a giant wind turbine that could also be used as an apartment block.
Despite their obvious benefits in terms of clean energy, some people find the giant, spinning wind turbines that dot the countrysides of a growing number of countries displeasing to the eye.
To counteract this, and to bring wind turbines into larger cities, the Dutch Windwheel Corporation want to make a windmill simply known as the Dutch Windwheel, which will not only draw the attention of everyone around it, but also allow people to live within its portal-like design.
According to PopSci, the windmill will not be using traditional wind turbine technology, but rather a motionless wind energy technology known as EWICON, which uses the power of the wind to move energy particles back and forth between negative and positive charges, thereby generating energy.
Image via Dutch Windwheel Corporation
Totally sustainable
The technology behind this has been under testing for a few years but has only been tested in operation on a small-scale unit, whereas the Dutch Windwheel will be towering over many of its surrounding buildings.
The outer ring is where the building’s potential inhabitants will be living, with enough space for 72 apartments, along with enough room for a seven-storey hotel with 160 rooms and, at the Dutch Windwheel’s top, a 1050m2 panoramic restaurant and bar.
Of course, given its message of sustainability, the building will not only power the surrounding city of Rotterdam, but those within the building will be living sustainably, with the Windwheel also including a processing plant capable of turning waste into biofuel, as well as a rain water collection facility to re-use the water.
The company designing it even says that the Windwheel can be disassembled and re-used anywhere else on the globe if needs be.
