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Seven unique small-wind turbines

By Steven Bushong | June 3, 2013

wdin4

4. With blades designed to resemble maple leaves, the Windancer is compact and noise-free.


Filed Under: Turbines

 
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Comments

  1. Ben Brickett says

    July 1, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    I agree with Tom–” looking good” does not neccesarily mean working “good” – Small wind turbines using high speed rotational blades feeding into direct drive high speed alternators utilize a good portion of their apparent wind energy in just “spooling up” with high losses due to drag vector losses . Vertical axis in small scale are even less efficient.
    It is a” tough nut to crack” in the design of a small turbine which can offer even close to a 40% wind to wire power efficiency . It can be done but will require a “ground up design” incorporating an iron cored pm generator with variable pitch driver blades . This approach has been taken ( they sure look different and perhaps not considered ” pretty”) , and several prototypes produced with promise . Several machines have undergone initial testing and have promise to break thru the 40% barrier over a wide range of wind speeds.. Third party verification now in process. check out VFG energy systems and W4E hydro turbines — same technologies.. ones wet and ones kinda dry

  2. Steven Bushong says

    June 10, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    Thanks for the comments, everyone. That Spiral Air Foil will definitely make it to the next iteration of this list. A sad note about Helix …

  3. Joe Faust says

    June 3, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    http://SpiralAirfoil.com is their web site.

  4. Joe Faust says

    June 3, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    That collection might have included, but did not, the SpiralAirfoil wind turbine.

  5. Tom Hurd says

    June 3, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    It appears all of these have one thing in common, nice artistically but lacking in performance. You just can’t change the laws of physics. I will wait for the next developments.

  6. Donald Lesko says

    June 3, 2013 at 4:13 pm

    There’s a small problem with one of the seven, Helix Wind. They auctioned off the company assets in May 2012, therefore, unless it’s used, you won’t be finding a Helix Wind unit for sale.
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/08/120820-helix-wind-collapse/

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