They look good, make a statement and the design looks to me as if it would carry little risk

I'm surprised they left it grey and didn't paint TESCO on it in big red letters.

Posted By: StuartBOne of these has appeared outside my local Tesco store. They have obviously done their research and decided to choose this style of wind turbine over the more traditional design? Why? More efficient? Anyone have any more detail on these? Are they suitable for domestic installation?

Vertical axis wind turbines (such as the Tesco one above) can work better in more turbulent urban environments where you don't have a predominant wind direction. In a steady breeze the horizontal axis (traditional 3 bladed ones you normally see) will generally be more efficient.

So this may well be the best design for this site, whether it's a good site or not is another question, whereabouts is it? I'd be interested to look it up on the DTI windspeed database.

As for wiring it, I'd be surprised if Tesco would really want to leave themselves open to criticism by having a huge white elephant outside their store. Plus they will want some media covage from it, so they're quite likley to be asked how much energy it produces.

The DTI wind database says the average windspeed at 10m and 25m above ground level is 5m/s and 5.9m/s respectively, although those numbers should be taken with a slight pinch of salt.

Looks like it's located on the outskirts of a realtively urban location (south side of Perth) on Google, although the resolution is terrible in that part of Scotland so I can't see any detail of the surrounding landscape/buildings.

The trees and bushes in that photo certainly won't help with the airflow, so not an ideal location, but I've certainly seen worse. The vertical axis was probably the right way to go. I doubt it would payback within its lifespan purely on the return on KWh produced. However, I'm sure it's worth it when you factor in the marketing, plus there are possible grants, the sale of ROCs, and soaring energy prices to factor in.

I've always liked Google software and found it very easy to use, so I never bothered to try the Microsoft alternative, but thanks for the suggestion, on this occassion it certainly is hugely better than Google maps!

Ropatec turbines are used in several countries, seem to be very robust and at least as efficient as the competition.

It does look very much like one of those spinning signs that you see outside garages and the like! I once made the mistake of trying to stop one of those signs from spinning and recieved quite a wack! Is there a flywheel affect with wind turbines?

'Every little helps'

The other Tesco store in Perth is now planning to put up another two of these 10 metre tall turbines. I have checked the windspeed for that store and it is 4.7m ps. I am not convinced that this is good enough, I was under the impression that you had to have a windspeed of at least 5m ps or there is no point in installing one. Looks like this really is just marketing BS.

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: Matt</cite>I wish they would learn to have doors that close to keep heat in in winter :|</blockquote>

LOL - i'm sure someone in the corporate sales team has worked out that if they have doors that close - customers won't come in and spend money.

I think all shops now need legislation - it's not just supermarkets: Easy learning Centre, Game, Orange, Vodaphone, O2, greggs and all by me always leave their doors open. Co-op don't, aned neither to boots, wh smiths, mcdonalds or sony centre.

But yes, super markets are worst. They should have flexi doors between the cold bit and warm bit so that the air isn't getting mixed, be forced to put doors on fridges and freezers and as an extra they could use the heat they extract from the freezers to heat the warmer part of the store.

But that would be to obvious!

There are 3 approx 10 storey apartment blocks in Bradford which have these type of turbines on the roofs.

I don't know about efficency but shops use air curtains to help keep the heat in, you know the ones, you walk in on a red hot day in summer and its blowing hot air at you?

These are supposed to act as a barrier due to the fast movement of warm air, well thats my guess. I'm not sure how easy it is to close the door after every customer enters or leaves the store, not when you get 1000's of people an hour? But in quite times there is no excuse.

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