If you follow the greener side of the “blogosphere” (you may mock me for using that phrase), you’ll have seen a plethora of interesting alternative energy stories focusing on clever use of wind turbines. First off, someone’s planning on launching kites with turbines attached way up to where winds blow pretty steadily, and sending the resulting power back down to earth. Secondly, World Changing shows us this mini-turbine system intended to make a wall more attractive, but provide a side benefit of a trickle of power.
I’ve always wondered about Bay Street here in Toronto. Some trick of geography combined with the most imposing architecture in the downtown core causes Bay Street to funnel an incredibly powerful blast of wind that shoots air out over the harbour, much to the chagrin of pilots and sailors who’ve dubbed this the “Bay Street Blow”.
What is stopping someone from stringing eggbeater-style turbines up between buildings, harnessing all that nuisance wind and converting it into something more useful? Surely even low-efficiency turbines would be able to pull enough energy out of that blow to make it worthwhile. Any thoughts?