NEW YORK — The densely packed stalks that would extract power from the wind, swaying like tall, slender grasses on a patch of desert between intersecting Arabian highways, are only a concept, for now. But in well-developed design plans, the thousand or so resin poles rise 55 meters, or 180 feet, are anchored in concrete bases and are fitted with LED lamps that flicker wildly as they sway in the wind — in proportion to the energy their movements generate. When the air is still, the lights go out.

Conceived by the New York collaborative design studio Atelier DNA, Windstalk, as the project is called, recently won second place in a novel international competition in the United Arab Emirates.

The Land Art Generator Initiative, now in its first year, considers large-scale land art installations that would double as clean energy producers. Its aim is to help participants to develop and ultimately attract investment to construct power-generating plants that are aesthetically and functionally integrated into the landscape.

The contest was established by the husband-and-wife team of Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian, whose firm Studied Impact is focused on the environmental effects of design.