DRAGONFLY TURBINE BY RENZO PIANO AND ENEL GREEN POWER

The Italian architect who designed an invisible wind turbine

When an architect meets a multinational renewable energy group, look for the sparks! Renzo Piano and ENEL Green Power have teamed up to design a mini wind turbine blade, mimicking the way a dragonfly stays stable in the air for maximum efficiency.

While small and super slim turbines offer various advantages, they often remain neglected because of their high cost: the electricity generated isn’t sufficient to justify the investment. Renzo Piano’s Dragonfly design could provide the ideal solution. On the energy side, it takes advantage of even the lightest breezes, no matter the altitude. Indeed, thanks to its lightweight and specific composite materials, winds of only 2m/ second are sufficient to power it more or less permanently. The Dragonfly turbine should be an important part of the new strategy to emphasize renewable technologies solutions: two months only have resulted in producing 1200 KW.

The second convincing feature is the low visual impact: the Dragonfly turbine has two blades rather than three and its discrete features (20 m high and 35 cm in diameter for the tower and 16 m in diameter for the two vertical blades) permits it to blend absolutely in its outdoors surrounding.

Power provided by an alternative method that respects the value of the residential property: what else could we ask for?