Vive La France! The Eiffel Tower Adds Wind Turbines
Paris is known for many things—it’s the epicenter of real food, coffee and, of course, the country's wine, and it’s also known as the city of love and light. But now, it’s adding another noteworthy tassel to its beret: the City of Sustainability. Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower has become a beacon for green energy with the addition of two wind turbines spinning about on its second level.
Painted to blend in with the tower’s iron, the turbines are actually difficult to notice, but they’re there, producing 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, which, according to Quartz, “is about enough to self-sustain the commercial section on the tower’s first floor.” While it’s not a huge amount of power, it’s significant in making the tower a bit more self-sustaining, and of course, it’s a huge talking point about green energy.
New York’s renewable energy design firm Urban Green Energy (UGE) is behind the turbines. UGE has worked with the Chinese Navy, BMW and the Philadelphia Eagles football team, but it’s the tower installation that is making the group gush. About seven million tourists visit the tower every year, and the goal is to make the wind turbines another featured talking point on the tower.
“The Eiffel Tower is arguably the most renowned architectural icon in the world, and we are proud that our advanced technology was chosen as the Tower commits to a more sustainable future,” said Nick Blitterswyk, CEO of UGE, in a press release. “When visitors from around the world see the wind turbines, we get one step closer to a world powered by clean and reliable renewable energy.”
Paris will also be hosting a UN conference on climate change later this year.
Image: chascow
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