"Available on the Internet, but my dream is to buy in the supermarket"
yellow one would say it was a book that took the reader clinging to the plot until the last page, but it's news, and Yellow nothing - indeed, pink - and took a lot of people clinging to the newspapers to know when the last page was written. Well, the answer is today. Today, the designer Philippe Starck and the CEO of "Pramac" Paul Campinoti present at the Milan Triennale of their small wind turbines - microturbines is the technical definition - intended to solve, or begin to solve two problems: the use of wind as a source of energy even by private individuals and the bulky appearance of concealment, "aesthetic pollution" of wind power generators.
Last page of an eco-aesthetic-industrial history began, the public, in 2008, when during the Salone del Mobile in Milan was exposed Courtyard of the State University Filerete the prototype of the small domestic altarpiece by Philippe Starck, graceful and tiny object (did not reach the meter high) with vertical instead of horizontal axis of rotation: a novelty to make it independent of wind direction and enable it to take advantage of the turmoil. This characteristic, together with the small size, elegant design and quiet operation of the mechanism, makes it suitable for urban areas.
Star of that edition of the show, the blade home, however, was slow to enter the market. In an interview with Alice Rawsthorn of The New York Times published on August 6 of that year, Starck, speaking of his new project "democratic design", defined by goods' cheap and environmentally friendly, "assured that the first of those products - a small wind turbine to be placed on the roof he was working with the Italian group" Pramac "- would be ready for Europe in the fall and early 2009 for America. Starck already imagined for sale in the supermarket, available to all. "Imagine - the enthusiasm - a guy who goes to Saturday at a department store to buy some useless gadget. But he runs into a really sexy object. "My God, that's great! How much? Sixteenth €? But it is more or less what I spent for my useless gadget." The buy, the salt roof, and 15 minutes later saw him turn and generate energy. Wow. "
There have been other interviews and there were other slips, but finally here we are, and this time, to ensure that the wind die is cast, there is a creative imagination, but a pragmatic producer. That is as enthusiastic as his designer, but the accounts makes them more realistically. Since the price of two microturbines: 2500 € the smallest, 90 cm high. and capable of producing 400 watts per hour under optimum conditions (with a wind blowing at 14 meters per second), the largest euro 3500, 140 cm high and capable of a kwatt time. Peanuts are not contemplated by Starck. And the energy needed to produce a regular house with 3 people - about 3 kilowatts per day - it would take three large blades with the wind at your back all day. Unimaginable. Where is the advantage then? As the investment pays for itself?
"In windy areas the investment is repaid in 5-6 years - explains Paolo Campinoti -. But the investment depends on the needs. If one has a house in Sardinia, and uses it only in summer, may invest less because it needs less energy. However, the energy produced in the months when the house is not in use should not be wasted, is networking Enel and deducted from the bill. It is clear however that the "plus" is not so much the advantage, that, well, combining with other alternative energy sources as wind, solar, first of all, you get. The "plus" is the awareness of clean energy use, to be part of a community EcoSense, to belong to a "current thinking", says Starck. "
Initially marketed on the Internet ("We are developing the site), then in specialty shops, the microturbine will do it to go to the supermarket? "It's our dream."
