Ever wonder how much electricity you could produce from a wind turbine in your backyard, in your company parking lot, or somewhere else? I know I have.
A new iPhone app from Danish wind energy giant Vestas can tell you just that.
The Vestas Weather app knows where your iPhone is, of course, and based on that info it calculates how much energy one of its V112 3MW turbines (yes, one of its newest products) would generate, as well as the amount of carbon dioxide it would keep out of the atmosphere.
The app is only for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at the moment but is supposed to be coming to Android and Windows phones soon.
Details on the way Vestas’ wind app works:
Vestas’ own meteorology department, in Plant Siting and Forecasting, constantly monitors and analyzes the weather globally using public databases and sensors in more than 40,000 turbines around the world.
Vestas is now also utilizing this to offer the public detailed weather forecasts based on the specific GPS coordinates of their mobile phone. To begin with, the application, or app, is only for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
The Vestas forecast is among the world’s best with a resolution as low as 3 km. The forecast is calculated on the supercomputer at Vestas Technology R&Ds headquarters in Denmark. The forecast models are run, maintained, and verified internally by meteorologists at Plant Siting and Forecasting.
The app is free. The main focus, of course, is getting people and businesses to buy wind turbines (Vestas’ V112 3MW turbines, in particular).
Nonetheless, the truth is that this could be really helpful, or at least interesting, to many people.
“It’s pretty simple. We have so much knowledge that we can share with the broader public in a way that supports our product and our brand. This app gives extremely useful information for the end-user and at the same time we can promote wind,” says Lars Chr. Christensen, Vice President of Plant Siting and Forecasting at Vestas Technology R&D.
Good-looking app, and free. If I had an iPhone I’d be getting it right now.
Related Stories:
1. (Free) Green iPhone Apps Reviewed. Part 1: Free Apps
2. Green iPhone Apps Reviewed. Part 2: Paid Apps
3. iPhone App for Telling a Climate Skeptic They’re Wrong
4. New iPhone App Measures Your Car’s Environmental Impact
Photo Credit: Wind turbine in Toronto by flickr user swisscan
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
