England: Our windmills are bloody enormous!

Oh, and I’m ever so sorry, but they’re upside down as well.

The Guardian reports on a new horizontal axis windmill, that promises to help the UK satisfy its ambitious wind goals.

These are still on the drawing board, but are the latest in an attempt to create bigger and less maintenance-intensive windmills. This design is smart as it places moving parts at the bottom, rather than the top. Who really wants to do maintenance 144 meters above the North Sea? Add to the fact the the size means they generate roughly three times the power of a traditional wind turbine.

We think they’re pretty awesome. Who knows whether they’ll get over recent NATO concerns about wind farms and Radar.

Photo courtesy Grimshaw Architects