Consumer product of the year: re: thought (BioHAWT).

• Author: Irwin, Robert
• Position: [INVENTORS SHOWCASE] - Brief article

Robert Irwin, the co-founder of Denver-based sustainable services firm re: thought, looked to Mother Nature for inspiration with the BioHAWT (an acronym for biomimetic horizontal axis wind turbine).

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Studying industrial design at the Art Institute of Colorado in 2005, Irwin began envisioning a wind turbine for the residential market. "I was concerned with the ongoing need for energy," Irwin says. "The renewable energy sector is exciting to me."

But instead of looking to the old windmills on the Colorado plains, he took design cues from such influences as Nautilus shells and pine cones.

"Biomimicry is a method where you study principles of nature and apply them to man-made objects," Irwin says. It follows that his turbine blades are built based on the progression of phi--a.k.a. the golden ratio, or approximately 1.618--in its design. "If nature's had billions of years to evolve, there's got to be some great design. It makes the blades highly efficient."

Besides its biomimetic design, the BioHAWT is also...