Lets get vertical and save the planet.

Vertical windmill sculptures are fun but are also a serious subject. Can they be an alternative to the big windmills used in wind farms on land and sea?

What if you turned the idea sideways, and created a turbine that could spin like a carousel? And what if you made a turbine small enough to sit on top of a building or inside an urban park? Could the result produce enough power to really matter? 

In the last two decades, a flurry of interest in expanding renewable energy in cities has attracted the attention of a large number of inventors and artists, many of whom see the vertical axis wind turbine as promising.

There is no single design for these upended wind catchers, but all share one key aspect: the blades turn around an axis that points skyward. 

They are now considered to be an alternative to the big windmills used in wind farms on land and sea. In some cases, they are more productive than the ones you see from the beach.

The size of these windmills varies but they can be rooftop size and offer power generation in the dead of night as well. They can also be attractive too.