Since revealing a concept for an energy generating wall back in 2021, designer Joe Doucet has been working on bringing the idea to life. That time is here with the launch of Airiva, a modular rotary wind turbine wall destined for installation on city buildings and infrastructure.

The idea in 2021 was to build a mesmerizing wall of 25 vertical-axis turbines, each connected to a generator for a total peak power output of 10 kilowatts.

As we noted at the time, that's an attractive figure but the intermittent nature of wind could see potential daily energy production of 240 kWh knocked down to a faction of that – we estimated 84 kWh based on average capacity of massive land-based tri-blade turbines in the US. But even that figure is likely overgenerous given that vertical-axis turbines are less efficient than those massive horizontal-axis beasts.

In the years since, Doucet and partners have reportedly tweaked and tested 16 blade configurations before focusing on four, then two and then settling on a helical design. More refinement followed, with the Airiva system now made up of sizable turbine units comprising two 2.1 x 2.1 x 1.05-m (6.9 x 6.9 x 3.4-ft) segments plus an end hub unit that's home to controls, comms and power management systems.