Paint your windmills matt black and lie them flat during the day and only hoist them into position at night.

You could use solar power to lower the tower when the sun rises each morning!
-- Pat-O-Cake, Nov 03 2009

Maybe [knowtion] is right... http://www.madsci.o...146592099.Es.r.html
"In my reasearch in North America, I typically find it about 30% windier during the day than at night" [wagster, Nov 04 2009]

It would seem he is... http://books.google...=onepage&q=&f=false
about twelve lines down the page [wagster, Nov 04 2009]

Wind Turbine Streamers Wind_20Turbine_20Streamers
Promoting my elf... [wagster, Nov 05 2009]

Bladeless fan http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/fans.asp
Dunno how it works - some ingenious application of electrostatsics, or massive subwoofers or something. Could be quite stealthy if they got rid of that massive base. [coprocephalous, Nov 05 2009]

Many people complain about the noise created by nearby windmills - especially problematic when trying to sleep.

Most wind occurs during the day.

Let's just improve solar energy conversion.
-- knowtion, Nov 03 2009


Or make them out of aerogels? Or those new transparent materials where light bends around? Or mirrors that are aligned to reflect sunlight down on solar collectors located throughout the farm? This whole "lets use the energy harvested from an energy harvester to make it incapable of harvesting energy" bit has me in a bad way...
-- daseva, Nov 03 2009


Sometimes there is no wind so they may as well lie flat.
-- Pat-O-Cake, Nov 04 2009


Just paint the sky the same blue as the windmills so they blend in.
-- neelandan, Nov 04 2009


Apparently if you light the shaded side of a wind turbine (or any narrow structure, really) it tends to disappear from any real distance. This may have significant applications in offshore wind farms, less so on land where people are both closer and at more angles.
-- MechE, Nov 04 2009


//Most wind occurs during the day//

Do you have any evidence for that?
-- wagster, Nov 04 2009


//Most wind occurs during the day// never been married obviously.

ignore that, yes, I'd like evidence as well.
-- po, Nov 04 2009


ah, remembering (and given that I live on an island) the wind goes seaward I believe at night and landward during the day due to the sea being slower to warm up during the day and later in releasing the heat at night.
-- po, Nov 04 2009


21Quest, yes, temperature differences do have an effect, but that's both positive and negative temperature differences - so while heating during the day is responsible for some wind, cooling during the night (should) create just as much.
-- zen_tom, Nov 04 2009


// it tends to disappear from any real distance //

This making them much less useful as VRP's for air navigation.

Anything that makes a tall structure less visible is a bad thing for air traffic. However, the "fold them down when not needed" idea is ingenious.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 04 2009


Looks like it really is windier during the day (links).
-- wagster, Nov 04 2009


Telescoping into the ground is an alternative to folding.
-- pocmloc, Nov 04 2009


Been there, done that (link).
-- wagster, Nov 05 2009


If Dyson can make a bladeless electric fan, could he not be persuaded to do the inverse, and make a bladeless windmill? [link]
-- coprocephalous, Nov 05 2009


//Some folk don't like to see windmills on the skyline//

Some folks will complain about anything, regardless of how unobtrusive it is. I think the best disguise would be to put them in plain sight and build hundreds of crazy golf courses populated entirely with gigantic, energy generating windmills.
-- DrBob, Nov 05 2009


Aha - so it's not really bladeless at all.
-- wagster, Nov 05 2009


The version powered by actual magic is.
-- kaz, Nov 05 2009


Why not just plant tall trees around them and obscure them from view?
-- vincevincevince, Nov 06 2009


[DrBob] "Giant Mini-Golf"? - I like it!
-- hippo, Nov 06 2009


//herd cattle by illuminating the ground with a red beam.//

Cows follow laser pointer beams ?!!
-- csea, Nov 06 2009


//The fan is hidden in the base which is piped into the ring//
You could've put a spoiler alert on that one.
-- coprocephalous, Nov 06 2009


hippo, you put it so much better than I did!
-- DrBob, Nov 06 2009


I don't think birds would enjoy "invisible" windmills in the daytime... kinda funny and horrible at the same time ...
-- WhatArmy, Aug 12 2010


It shouldn't be necessary to cloak the windmill to satisfy 'curb appeal.' Better to cloak the NIMBY neighbors.
-- LoriZ, Aug 12 2010



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