The roof of Intel’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California is generating renewable energy with the largest micro-turbine array in the US.
Renewable energy generating rooftops are almost always associated with solar, but this does not necessarily have to be the case, and the guys from the IT giant Intel are demonstrating just that. Following their ambition to always be that little bit different from the rest, they decided to build a mini wind farm on the rooftop of their headquarters in Santa Clara, California.
The micro-turbine array, which is being installed as we speak, comprises of 58 wind turbines, and it is expected to generate a total of 65 kWh. Each turbine is just under 7 ft (~2m) tall, and weighs 30 pounds (13kg). The electricity that is generated by the wind farm, will be used to power the conference center of the Robert Noyce Building.
The mini wind farm is just a “proof of concept” at this stage, and this is why it proudly shares the space on the building rooftop with a relatively larger array of solar panels. Once Intel gathers enough data to assess the performance of the micro-turbine array, they promise to share it with the world, hoping that they will help homes and businesses to integrate the technology too.
This project brings Intel a step closer to reaching their ultimate goal- going off grid completely. Over the past few years, their green initiatives have been widely recognized, and rightfully so. For a seventh year in a row, Intel is given the title of the largest voluntary purchaser of green power in the U.S., by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Unlike other companies such as Apple and Google, Intel focuses on greening up their own facilities, rather than building and investing in independent power plants. Intel powers 12 of their campuses in the U.S., Israel and Vietnam with home-produced 12 million kWh of solar power per year. In addition, both Intel campuses in India are equipped with solar hot water systems, which meet almost all needs of the facilities.
Image (c) LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group
Green optomistic sums it up. I take it that the 65kWh the wind turbines will generate will be over their lifetime, as it is given as a total amount. What a waste of money.