Engineering Question — Windmills and Walls

Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon

In Boston, when the John Hancock Tower was erected near the Prudential, wind patterns changed: high winds blew out heavy windows from upper stories of the Hancock. With that in mind, I wonder if it is possible to deliberately change wind patterns and intensify wind flow by building walls.

For instance, when building an array of electricity-generating windmills in an open field, why not build walls perpendicular to the prevailing wind and angling inward, funnel-like? These walls could create wind-tunnel effects, intensifying the wind and focusing it on the blades of the windmills. Perhaps the walls could be movable, so they could be adjusted to maximize the effect at different times of the day and of the year.

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