At times there is a lot of hurray about buildings trying to be green by adding a wind turbine on, or on top of their building. But for some reason, my experience is that they never work.

This afternoon I walked past a parking garage near my house which actually dubbed itself green, mostly on the back of a number of vertical wind turbines mounted on the corner of the building. It actually calls itself Greenway. Now there is an obvious issue with a structure which facilitates the use of cars in a city center while trying to be "green", but the bigger issue is that these turbines never seem to work. Here (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-21/news/ct-met-kamin-green-garage-1121-20101121_1_parking-garage-wind-turbines-parking-floors) is a column of local architecture critic Blair Kamin on the matter. Here is a video that shows you the idea.

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Does anyone else know other examples of wind turbines that never or hardly work?

"Houston we have a problem":

From: http://swamplot.com/pieces-of-wind-turbine-fall-onto-street-from-top-of-hess-tower-downtown-blades-on-lockdown/2011-01-13/

Thursday, January 13, 2011
Pieces of Wind Turbine Fall Onto Street from Top of Hess Tower Downtown; Blades on “Lockdown”

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1352/4605855766_0c7c145865.jpg

Sometime before the Christmas holiday last year, “high winds” caused a part of one of the wind turbines mounted to the top of downtown Houston’s Hess Tower to “detach” from its mounting point. “Two pieces of the debris fell to the street. Nobody was injured,” Hess Corporation spokesperson Mari Pat Sexton tells Swamplot today. Sexton had no comment on circulating rumors that one or more of the the pieces struck a car on the street.

The incident helps explain why the whirling turbines, installed as a featured element at the top of the new 29-story tower last summer, have been silent since mid-December. In the photo above, taken by a HAIF commenter shortly before Christmas, the turbines appear to be missing. “After the event occurred, (the turbines) were locked down,” Sexton says, adding she is unaware of the turbines’ current status or whether there are plans to replace them. “The building is still under construction.”

[...]


Before the turbines broke:

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They're planning on putting these wind turbine things on Lincoln Financial Field in the next year or two. It's already drawing concerns after the initial "OMG green energy initiative!" luster wore off.