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I wrote an article [1] a few months ago about whether wind turbines are ugly and how/if they could be made more beautiful. Painting them black is definitely not
by keiferski 3y ago
I wrote an article [1] a few months ago about whether wind turbines are ugly and how/if they could be made more beautiful. Painting them black is definitely not going to be received well by people that consider them ugly.
The most interesting solution I came across was using LED lights [2] to match ambient colors of the sky. Here’s the description from the prototype creator:
I built a scale prototype using a foam core silhouette of a wind turbine as seen from land. The structure was covered in LED Tape lights and linked to a potentiometer to control their brightness. I installed the turbine along the San Francisco beach and powered it using a car battery. After some quick adjustments, the silhouette vanished into the background sky.
I think this solution, combined with some kind of flashing ultraviolet signal (as birds can see UV, IIRC) is the best route for both birds and humans.
1. https://onthearts.com/p/are-wind-turbines-ugly-could-they https://onthearts.com/p/are-wind-turbines-ugly-could-they
2. http://www.taismauk.com/#/camouflage-for-offshore-wind-turbines/ http://www.taismauk.com/#/camouflage-for-offshore-wind-turbi...
- kjkjadksj 3y agoIts funny how much handwringing there is about wind farming aesthetic. The alternative is far uglier. A field of oil derricks is both ugly and smelly. A refinery takes up a massive footprint, is also smelly and ugly, and demands a lot of trucking and freight rail connections to boot. We even put this stuff next to our most valuable real estate, in the case of the inglewood oil field or chevron’s el segundo refinery.
- keiferski 3y agoThat’s very true, but I do think if the goal is to increase wind power adoption, the aesthetic issue should be addressed. In other words, just saying the alternative is uglier isn’t really the optimal approach.
- mrguyorama 3y agoHow about: It's literally not an issue. They are industrial pieces of machinery, which probably work better if we don't handicap them with some asinine requirement to "look good", which is an unworkable requirement since plenty of people ALREADY think they look wonderful and would look worse if changed. We should not let a bunch of NIMBYs crying about stuff not even on their property or neighborhood who are just pitching a fit about any change stop us from undoing the impending climate catastrophe we have created for ourselves by refusing to do anything that the dumbest and angriest people seem to be upset about. Wind turbine adoption is driven at the ballot box, not in the hearts and minds of a bunch of selfish people.
- badtension 3y agoI'd pick recyclability over aesthetics any day.