Metropolis Magazine recently announced the winner of their 2009 Next Generation Design Competition where the entrants were challenged to "fix our energy addiction." A team of French designers have won the prize with an innovative, practical way to create renewable energy wind farms.

Their Wind Turbine Towers, called Wind-it, install wind turbines in out-of-use electrical transmission towers. The idea is simple and elegant. Because the turbines are installed into the old electric transmission towers, it is easy to get the power into the power grid.

This innovation helps propel the European Union towards its goal of using renewable energy sources to produce 20 per­cent of the energy needed by 2020. The French designers who came up with the idea are Nicola Delon, Julien Choppin and Raphael Menard. They claim 5 % of Frances energy needs could come from installing these wind farms in one-third of the transmission towers.

What is a major benefit of the idea is that the towers are already constructed and would not result in additional structures which many view as unattractive.

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