We have seen many buildings that utilize photovoltaic cells as walls, window covers and roofing, but integrating a wind-powered turbine into the building design is yet to come out from the drawing board. A building shaped like two triangles, with pointed edges facing each other, is an ideal setup to integrate both solar and wind as energy sources.

Why would this design be ideal? Conceptually, a wind turbine placed in the middle of the intersection, between the pointed edges made by the two triangles, would work much more efficiently than a conventional windmill. A conventional style windmill or wind turbine needs to turn around to adapt to varying wind direction. With this type of set-up, the building’s aerodynamic design would allow the wind to be concentrated in just one focal point, and that is where the two triangular shaped structure’s edge would meet. The force of air is gathered on either sides of the building and collected to form a concentrated force to turn the windmill’s spinning blade as the winds aerodynamic force approaches the center of the building. Depending on the height of the building, the number of wind blades that could be installed will correspondingly increase.

The wind blades could then be enclosed in a grilled set-up to prevent birds from getting chopped by the blade, and also avoiding possible accident in case the blades are accidentally dismantled from the windmill.

A solar heating panel is interspersed between arrays of photovoltaic cells so that it could effectively provide heating to all corners of the building. The insulation pipes and ducts of the heating system can be minimized, and thus, save more on building construction cost while building a built-in alternative electrical power.