The Quiet Revolution

This is Qr5, a vertical axis - 6kW wind turbine, suitable for urban environments, that is virtually silent and vibration free – critical for use on or near buildings. This beautiful new turbine, designed by the UK's XCO2 - a very progressive environmental engineering consultancy, can produce 10,000 kWh annually, if we consider an average wind speed of 5,8 m/s. The first commercial installation will be on London Road in the London Borough of Croydon. The developers plan to install 7 turbines in order to achieve the required 10% of their energy requirements from a renewable source on site. There are several additional sites that already have planning approval in the UK and more than 20 are awaiting planning decisions and include schools, local council buildings and the headquarters of several FTSE100 companies. Managing to harness wind in a city for power generation I believe is a huge step in emissions reductions, something that up until now was considered to have many environmental and technical impacts, and was more suitable for rural environments. It would be great if we managed to get something like this going in Greek cities too, especially those lying close to the coast. That is a long shot however, since we are still in the process of revising the basic framework for renewable energy developments in this country, which is very messed up.