Photo by NDenergy via Treehugger.
Generally, gigantic engineering companies don’t truck with whimsy. But Siemens, which makes many of the wind turbines popping up on horizons around the world, has created a suite of new products that makes turbines more powerful and is inspired by dinosaurs. It’s like something a 5-year-old thought up, but better.
The company has created DinoTails and DinoShells. The DinoTail is based on the plates that line the tails of stegosauri. Here’s how it works, according to Treehugger:
When applied to a wind turbine blade, they increase the overall area of the blade to add lift. The serrated edges help break up air flow around the blades, which decreases turbulence and makes the the turbines quieter while reducing the strain on the blades.
The DinoShells’ dinosaur connection is less convincing: The idea is that the curve of a blade resembles a dinosaur egg shell in some way. It also resembles a lot of other things. (Treehugger compares it to a snow shovel.) But we’ll give Siemens a few points for at least trying to make turbines seem that much more prehistorically awesome.
