Windy Cities

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The winds that whip around urban buildings are rarely harvested by wind turbines and converted into electricity. One reason: aesthetics. Skylines skewered by wind turbine towers could be quite unsightly. Moreover, most turbines aren't efficient enough to merit installation. But Enatek, an Italian start-up based in Tuscany, has designed a building-integrated turbine that solves both problems.The Venturebine features three blades that rotate horizontally, somewhat like the turning blades on an old-fashioned manual lawn mower. The units - which weigh just 440 pounds each and are roughly 10 feet in length - can be placed end to end along a roofline, so they blend in more readily with their surroundings. Enatek engineers got help from the Universities of Florence and Prato. -TG