It has a fancy name and design but as you can tell from the photo it is a simple innovation based on a reverse funnel effect. Cleantechnica reports:

The Wind Lens works by creating an area of low pressure behind the turbine that essentially sucks the wind through the turbine, increasing effective wind speed. As wind power is proportional to the wind speed cubed, the wind lens changes the fluid dynamics around the turbine to increase its power.

Can we expect to see datacenters designed around tubines in the near future? Both new power and cooling solutions may be found by engineers trying to harness the wind. I envision a tunnel that flows through a datacenter to power turbines yet also pull heat out and away.

I’ve already written about the overproduction of power from wind turbines in Germany that has forced them to export energy to their neighbors.

Now the Japanese appear ready to take the issue even further by dropping the cost of wind energy below nuclear energy and forcing a giant shift in risk calculations.

Imagine: no more dirty coal power, no more mining deaths, no more nuclear disasters, no more polluted aquifers as a result of fracking.

Fair enough but don’t forget to imagine instead some new risks such as climbing up giant turbines to service them, the impact to weather and wildlife…