Eiffel Tower Ramps Up Renewables With Wind Turbines

Leave it to the French to turn something as unsexy as a wind turbine into a work of art by installing two of them on the Eiffel Tower.

Yes, that Eiffel Tower, which itself is a monument to creativity and sustainability: When it was built in 1889, it was only intended to last for 20 years. In the ensuing 126 years, the tower has gone through many renovations, but the latest sends a decidedly green message whirling into the future.

Last month, the renewable energy firm Urban Green Energy installed two wind turbines inside the metal scaffolding of the tower. The turbines will produce 10,000 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power the tower’s first-floor commercial establishments, which include restaurants, a souvenir shop and exhibits about the history of the tower.

The turbines are part of a plan to reduce the environmental impact of the tower. Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), the organization that runs the tower, is also installing rainwater collection systems, LED lights and solar panels.

Other parts of Paris are also getting into the green makeover act. Later this month, Newsweek reported that a few streets in Paris will get their own camouflaged wind turbines that are shaped like trees.

Here’s a short video of the Eiffel Tower’s wind turbines in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwK4P2Ln0Eg

Jan Gromadzki, an engineer who oversaw the project for the New York-based UGE, says the tower consumes an estimated 6.7 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, so the wind turbines are “just a small drop in the ocean."

The “installation is definitely more symbolic," Gromadzki says. "But it is still significant because the merchant spaces on the first floor do consume energy, and being able to offset that consumption is something people can really assimilate and understand."

The curved, tri-blade turbines were designed and installed by UGE. The Eiffel Tower posed unique challenges. Each blade had to be hoisted by hand, pulled up to the second floor and secured within the building's tight lattice structure along its southwest corner. The entire installation had to be done at night, because the Eiffel Tower is open to the public until 11 p.m., seven days a week.

SETE wanted "something that would make a visual statement," Gromadzki says, without distracting from the tower's distinct silhouette. So, the blades were painted in a brown-grey hue to match the building, and extra vibration dampeners were added to make sure the turbines wouldn’t disturb diners at the upscale Jules Verne restaurant below. When running at full speed, the turbines only produce about 40 decibels of sound — about the equivalent of a whisper.

"It really does represent this big leap forward for renewable energy as a whole, to have this technology to the point where it can be easily adopted by consumers like the Eiffel Tower," Gromadzki adds. "And I think that was something that, five years ago, no one would've been ready for. It demonstrates that we’ve come this far to create renewable energy technologies that can be easily integrated into the daily lives of people around the world."

Turning wind turbines into visually appealing structures in urban landscapes creatively refutes the traditional criticisms of them, which say they take up too much space, make too much noise and ruin the landscapes in which they are built. Way to go, Paris.

Image: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France | 2 x UGE VisionAIR5 wind turbines via the UGE photo gallery.