Microgeneration has not taken off in UK yet. Retails has started selling wind turbines and solar panels. Higher initial investment aside, who wants to fit an ugly wind turbine to their own house? Who wants to cover the roof of their own house with ugly solar panels? [pictures from B&Q]

Don’t worry. “Elegant wind power has arrived with the new quietrevolurion wind turbine“. The design is innovative and it’s even near silence. It can also become suspended video screens or colour-change lighting displays, thanks to LEDs integrated within the blades.

An oddly named company, XsunX, based in California, is manufacturing “Power Glass“, a technology that allows glass windows to produce electricity via solar energy. Unleashing “Power of the Sun” for parking facilities is a good idea, but they are ugly. It could be a combination of ”Power Glass” transparent roof and quietrevolution wind turbines with adverts.

Most of recent skyscrapers are energy efficient, but they will even be able to generate more energy than they need with technologies like these without spoiling visual effect in the near future. I am a big fan of Businessweek’s slide shows. Here are a few of them on this topic.