The wind tree is designed to harness energy from even the faintest breeze. The silent and small design of the turbine hopes to capture the attention of those opposed to more traditional wind turbines. At only 11 meters tall, a wind tree can easily fit in your backyard, on rooftops, or in urban parks.
The main advantage of the wind tree is that is will start spinning with only 2 m/s of wind - where as other turbines usually require a minimum of 4 or 5 m/s - regardless of wind direction. That means that the wind trees can harness wind for more days a year, making electricity capture from wind sources more plausible in certain regions of the world.
The trees cost approximately $37,000 each and should pay for itself within two years. Prototypes have already been installed in Paris.