It looks (from the barricades) like the work is being done by Miron Construction from their website it seems that they have done a few LEED and Green projects in the area.

A small amount of detective work turned up an article stating that these are supposed to be 4kw generators and will be placed facing Silver Spring Drive.  They are on that side of the building and some more work needs to be done to determine the make and model of these turbines.  Frankly I have never seen vertical turbines like these before.  So more research turned up information about the shape of the turbines.

Gorlov Helical Turbine – Designed in a helical configuration, this type of turbine came up in the beginning of the 21st century to solve the issues faced by a Darrius turbine. These are self-starting and offer better reliability (Wind Turbine Zone, 2011).

This looks very similar to the design of the ones I found on the ground outside the building.

A bit more searching around lead to a company called QuietRevolution that makes vertical turbines that look very similar to this Gorlov design.   They have a model called the qr5 that is specified peak power at 16m/s is: 8.5kW aerodynamic; 7.0kW DC; 6.5kW grid.  This could be our model and manufacturer.

Check them out here.  QuietRevolution qr5.

I plan on snapping some more pictures and adding them when they are done with the installation.

The larger question for me at least is whether this installation is hypocritical. Two 4kw wind generators are not going to make a difference.  They are a token gift to the power gods.  If a computer can draw a maximum of 400w with a normal power supply each of these guys could offset 40 computers at idle.  Does it make a difference in reality maybe not.  Will my company promote the heck out of the fact that they have two wind generators on the building you bet.  The expenditure is worth it for the green credit right now.

Greenwashing? What do you all think?

Update 1/3/11:  They are up on the roof.  I tried to snap a photo today while driving home but it did not work too well.  I will snap one tomorrow on the way in.  They look nice but the comments from people have been interesting.  Egg beaters or kitchen mixers have been popular descriptions for what they look like.  I wonder if my employer will be publishing any information as to their actual output.