The Anonymous Widower

In Search of Strata

If you look south from the river, you’ll see a curious building with what look like three clock faces.  The building is called Strata London and today I went to Elephant and Castle to have a closer look at it.

Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong direction and the pictures aren’t the best.

The clocks are actually wind turbines. Although there are doubts about their effectiveness. Wikipedia says this.

Strata SE1 is one of the first buildings in the world to incorporate wind turbines within its structure. The three nine-metre wind turbines at the top of the building are rated at 19 kW each and are anticipated to produce 50MWh of electricity per year. They are expected to generate sufficient energy to provide power for the common areas of the building (8% of the energy needs of the building), although questions about their real efficiency will remain unanswered until the completion of two years of comprehensive wind data analysis.

Having lived on the 11th floor of one of the towers in the Barbican, I’m not sure that this building would be as nice a place to live.

January 13, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | World | Barbican, Building