Of wind turbines and birds
From Gizmodo: quietrevolution's elegant vertical-axis wind turbine is, as its name suggests, quiet but can be made avante-garde with the help of LEDs. A bit of programing and you have images, perhaps even moving ones. Sorry, but ecodes is into peace and quiet...and this applies to the other senses as well as the ears.

And then there's this: Magenn Power supplies an inflatable turbine based on the magnus effect. Among other claims - more efficient, cheaper, lada, lada, lada - it is supposed to be safer for the birds.

Talking about which, if you are worried about wind turbines and birds, you can get the lowdown at treehugger. The short of it is: "small blades, low surface area, lots of dead birds possible; very big blades, with large surface area exposed to wind, very few dead birds." Go read it yourself.