ARCHITECTURAL WIND PATENTED

Architectural Wind®, the breakthrough wind energy mini-turbine design, has been awarded patents for its unique energy efficiency, architectural and electrical system integration features. Years in development by cutting-edge Monrovia, CA, firm Aerovironment (AV), Architectural Wind® is wind energy’s answer to the rooftop solar array. The patents recognize Architectural Wind®’s very unique design features.

The visually appealing mini-turbines install quickly and easily at a building’s lip. AV’s Paul Glenney, co-designer of Architectural Wind®: “This is kinetic architecture…It is prominently placed, it is moving, it attracts the eye… Architectural Wind causes conversation, engages stake holders—employees, the Board of Directors, shareholders and customers—in the topic of sustainable building.”

More importantly, the mini-turbine’s are designed for positioning on a building at an ideal pitch, allowing the five patented-design blades of each turbine to capture the wind’s full force most efficiently as it strikes the structure’s wall and accelerates up and over the facing edge. Glenney describes this as “finding the sweet spot.”

The wind energy captured by the mini-turbines, which are typically arrayed in a line across the windward side of a building, is integrated into the building’s electrical grid by a patented inverter with a high voltage DC buss, winding the owner’s electric meter backwards whenever the wind blows at 5 mph or faster.(see also ARCHITECTURAL WIND: MORE POWER, WINNING WAYS)

A 10-kilowatt (10 turbine) system can be installed for less than $60,000 dollars and produce enough power for most commercial buildings to generate more electricity than they consume while the wind is normally active.

AV was founded by the late Paul MacCready, the first man to achieve human-powered flight, who Time Magazine called “one of the greatest minds of the 20th century and who Discover Magazine named Engineer-of-the-20th-Century.(see MACCREADY SOARS AGAIN: CLEAR SKIES, SMOOTH WINDS

Architectural Wind (click to enlarge)

Aerovironment Awarded Patents for Architectural Wind ® Building-Integrated Energy Generation System

WHO
AeroVironment, Inc. (AV & AVAV on the NASDAQ) (Mike Bissonette, vice president/general manager, Energy Technology Center); United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Sitting in the sweet spot. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Architectural Wind® (designed by AeroVironment’s Tom Zambrano, Paul Glenney and Robert Barrosa and Oregon State University’s Stel Walker) was awarded 3 utility patents, 6 design patents and 12 European design patents for its unique assembly features, building attachment methods, positioning procedures and electric system integration and transmission capabilities.

WHEN
- Architectural Wind was awarded a green category 2006 “red dot design award” and was among those recognized as an environmental category “best” in I.D. Magazine’s 2007 review.
- Announcement of patents was made April 4.
- By designing the mini-turbines to sit at the building’s lip, the rooftop is free to accommodate a solar array which can be integrated into the patented Architectural Wind inverter. Because it is not uncommon for the wind to fall off when it is hottest and pick up at sunset when temperatures drop, the wind and solar systems would compliment one another.

An array of mini-turbines. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- AV is based in Monrovia, CA.
- The Architectural Wind ® designers note it is especially conducive to installation and use at the upper edge of big box warehouse stores and similar industrial structures.
- Among Architectural Wind ®’s most significant installations: The Camden Adventure Aquarium (Camden, NJ), the Twenty-Mule Team Borax factory (Boron, CA), a Pioneer Electronics building (Long Beach, CA), a Nestle Waters building (Cabazon, CA), a Staples fulfillment plant (Ontario, CA), an Austin Energy building (Austin, TX) and a BMW DesignWorks facility (Newbury Park, CA).

WHY
- The patents are for several Architectural Wind ® design features, especially (1) ease of assembly, (2) flexibility of positioning and architectural integration and (3) positioning for maximum energy production and efficiency.
The mini-turbine blade design is also patented
- Another patent covers the Architectural Wind ® grid integration inverter. The inverter prevents wind’s intermittency from being a problem. The mini-turbine-generated electricity is fed directly into the grid so the building can draw on the grid’s power when the wind isn’t blowing. The same inverter flexibility allows a complimentary solar energy system to be routed through it.
- The 1000-watt AVX1000 mini-turbine is six feet high and four feet across, weighs 90 pounds, has 66-inch blades.

Dressing up boxes. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Mike Bissonette, vice president/general manager, AV Energy Technology Center: “AV’s prospective customers for Architectural Wind® systems are committed to demonstrating sustainable practices in energy and resource management…Our building-integrated wind energy system is designed to provide these leaders with a fresh and highly visible approach to clean energy generation with a goal of providing a payback that is comparable to or better than that of photovoltaic systems.”
- Paul Glenney, co-designer, Architectural Wind ®: “If you stand on the top of a building and put your hand over the edge you feel a wind coming up, an upflow…We call this the chimney effect: When air strikes the building, it must go somewhere. It goes up...“