Abstract

Building-integrated wind turbines have special qualities that distinguish them from the entire wind turbines industry, which include the need to be much quieter, while maximising energy generation considering the limited swept area of the turbines. This has inspired a great deal of innovations that need to be investigated and revisited for further improvements across architecturally optimised buildings incorporating wind energy generation or building-integrated wind turbines. The aim is to draw some lessons or perhaps to mimic their principles within suitable architectural forms. One of the lessons learnt from a diffuser design that can be translated into building design to augment wind turbines is the area ratio, i.e. ratio of outlet to inlet areas, and length–diameter ratio, i.e. ratio of length to diameter. The larger these ratios, the larger the expected power output of the augmented wind turbines will be.