Natural energy
Instead of privacy screens – Americans developed the wind fence for everyone
Wind energy that doesn’t spoil the landscape.
© Doucet / PR
Electricity from the fence – this is the vision of US inventor Joe Doucet. Its module could replace fences and privacy screens. A single one is supposed to cover the electricity needs of a house.
Anyone can use solar energy as long as they only have a few square meters of space available for it. It is different with wind energy. In fact, there are also mini versions of the large wind turbines, but in practice they are often unusable because of their noise, even if there is enough wind close to the ground.
A Spanish company is therefore developing wind generators that look like a palm frond. If they swing in the wind, they generate electricity through the piezo effect.
Large area for weak winds
The American designer and entrepreneur Joe Doucet came up with a different idea. He presented a wall of wind. They could be put up wherever there are fences today. Visually, his design is reminiscent of an ordinary privacy screen. 25 axles are embedded in a frame with small square blades attached to them. When the air flows along the wall, the blades set the rods in rotation and thus drive the generators.
Instead of a large turbine, very many small units are used. One module is 2.4 meters high and 7.6 meters long. Due to the relatively large area, electricity should be generated even when the wind is weak. Doucet has built a prototype and based its calculations on it. According to this, a module would have to cover the electricity needs of a house under favorable conditions.
His design takes up an idea of the Norwegian windcatcher in a small format. Instead of a huge propeller, the Windcatcher 117 clusters small rotors in a frame. Except that the frame of the wind catcher will be 300 meters high.
Doucet does not see the real potential in single houses, however, but in larger commercial buildings and even in cities. “Instead of the typical retaining walls along streets and highways, you could put up a number of these walls,” Doucet told Fast Company. “With the additional wind from the trucks, our highways could cover all of our energy needs.”
Solution for personal use
Basically, one must object that there is a reason why wind turbines only stand in certain places and soar upwards. The wind yield is greater there. Especially in built-up areas there are many zones close to the ground where the Doucet wind fence will hardly pay off. On the one hand. On the other hand, there are a lot of buildings, fences and noise barriers in very windy areas – there the wind wall could make sense. The advantage of the wind walls lies in their space requirement. If they replace other boundaries, they do not need any additional space and because of their low height they would not spoil the landscape. The complicated approval process for the large turbines could be dispensed with when replacing the fence.
It is difficult to assume that the wind fence can deliver electricity as cheaply as a large turbine, but that is not necessary either. In the EU, the production of electricity for personal use only has to be cheaper than electricity from the grid. At prices of 30 cents per kilowatt hour and higher, this is not particularly difficult.