When we were up at Jiminy Peak, we talked to Tyler Fairbank who’s the son of Jiminy Peak owner Brian Fairbank and also the CEO of EOS Ventures, a green energy company Noah wrote about here.
One of the things we’d discussed before we went to see/climb the turbine was the aesthetics of wind turbines. Noah and I happen to think they look pretty cool, but definitely have witnessed the NIMBY point of view – the aesthetics of the turbines, particularly in large scale installations, is a frequent obstacle for approval from the local residents.
Here’s a clip of us talking to Tyler about how the turbines look.
So interestingly, there was a pretty dramatic shift of opinion on the area post-installation. This seems pretty normal to me, and got us thinking that maybe the pitch for a turbine installation needs to be more design oriented.
Here’s a wind farm in Palm Springs, California – one which I’ve driven through myself. Its pretty cool looking, but is definitely the work of engineers, its in a grid formation, and probably laid out with only zoning and maximum efficiency in mind.
Contrast with this:
Ok, so yeah I picked tulips because of the Dutch windmill association, but my first thought on wind farm aesthetics is how come they’re all one color? As part of an installation hire an artist to design the colors of the turbines (it works for water towers, I see tons of those painted in interesting fashions. Also, as in this picture, maybe make a few concessions for maximum efficiency and skip the grid layout of the turbines and opt for something that is more pleasing to the eye or follows the natural contours of the landscape.
Another thought is visualizations – why not use tools like Google Maps/Earth, and Google SketchUp to not only visualize how the turbines would look in a particular location for general visualization purposes, but also use it as an easily sharable platform for proposals/competitions for the artistic side of a turbine installation ? Not to mention being useful as a general sales/presentation tool. hm.
I bet taking a more beautifying approach would go over well with just about everyone, and would help move things along faster in terms of public acceptance.
Also, found this cool shirt:
