WASHINGTON: Apart from that perfect view, your balcony can be used for something more valuable-a personal generator that converts wind and sun to power from a balcony. 

Industrial designer Jonathan Globerson's Greenerator design could be a way to preserve the view while reducing reliance on coal, reports Discovery News. 

Looking a little like a cross between a double helix and a barber shop pole, the Greenerator design calls for a wind turbine, a half-dome shaped compartment for the generator, a controller, ultracapacitor, inverter and a solar panel attached to a balcony edge with a rail clamp and floor screws. 

Globerson's design calls for magnetic levitation to reduce the wind turbine friction, as well as flexible thin-film solar cells that would require less material than traditional solar panels. 

According to his design specs, the Greenerator wouldn't be powering your whole apartment, but it could reduce the annual cost of electricity by 6 percent. 

The Greenerator alone could power a refrigerator or a 32" flat panel TV, which strikes me as being fairly impressive for such a seemingly small generator. 

So far, a 1:4 scale prototype of the Greenerator is up and running: According to Globerson's site, "the prototype turbine works, although from watching the video I think the design will need streamlining to reduce vibration and noise. Plus, I'd want anything metallic that's attached to my balcony to go through extensive safety testing-not just for humans, but also for wildlife."