Tree Wind Turbines? Green Energy With $2 Gas?

I recently read an article on IFLScience.com about a company in France called NewWind which came out with a new green energy product called Tree Vent. They described it as “an array of vertical wind turbines that look a lot like a tree.” The trees look like modern art but when the leaves spin, the tree produces a current power output of 3.1 kilowatts. In addition, unlike regular huge turbines, it is silent and able to work with winds as slow as 4.4 mph and as fast as category 3 winds (178 mph). Unfortunately, like any new green energy product, it is pretty costly with a whopping $35,000 price tag which can supposedly pay for itself within two years. 

I personally really like this idea and think it would work very well in major cities like NYC where space is limited for major projects like conventional wind turbines. One of these Tree Vents won’t do much but a few on each block can collect a lot of energy in our windy cities like NYC or Chicago. Along with this idea, there are so many new concepts and products out there that are considered green energy. I recently read an article about a company that wants to install highways made from solar panels to collect sun energy. These panels can take the wear and tear of huge trucks driving over them at 70 mph over and over again. Another concept is using electricity generators to collect energy from moving water. I've read an article about certain scientists wanting to place these turbines in places like the Gulf Stream to collect energy from that flow of water.  The major stumbling block is price and how to make it safe for marine life. 

All these concepts are amazing and if we can implement them, we can do so much good for the environment because we would then stop using harmful products like oil. Unfortunately, I think this will not work until we are able to bring down the price of making these products. It’s very expensive to produce these things but with new technologies, the prices will decrease very rapidly in the future. (Look at the price of regular solar panels who's production price is down by more then half.) However, a major push for green energy products is a financial need by the people and the government. With gas prices as low as $2 in NJ and Saudi Arabia controlling its oil production, the need for green energy is not financially there. In addition, the government is in many ways controlled by gas companies who do not want to go out of business if these green energies are implemented and gas is no longer needed. 

I feel that as a whole, we want to do the right thing but many of us are lazy and do what is easy and especially what is cheap. The only way that green energy is going to make it big is when gas prices are very high and we see physical changes around us from using too much fossil fuels. By that point, I’m sure that green energy will be at the point where products are much cheaper to make. 

 

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-wind-turbine-looks-tree-coming-paris