Windmill Tech News

Both of these reports were found in the Farm Show magazine, volume 32 No 5.

Windmill in a Box at Retail Stores Soon
A new wind turbine from EarthTronics produces up to 2kW of energy, with only 20 inch blades. The super efficient, ready to go turbine is designed for easy installation and low maintenance. And it's priced to be affordable.

The president of EarthTronics wants to be able to mount it anywhere from a rootop to a pole and generate 20% or more of your home energy needs for about 2 grand.

The turbine is gearless and doesn't need a separate generator. The 6 blades revolved, acting as rotors, with the rim acting as the armature. This means electricity is produced at tip speed, not hub speed, like traditional windmills. They start rotating at 2 mph and reach max output at 15 mph.

If you'd like more information, contact EarthTronics Inc 200 Viridian Dr Muskegon, MI 49440 866 632 7840 or
info @ earthtronics.com
www.earthtronics.com

Windspire Produces Low-Cost Energy

Windspire from Mariah Power is a 1.2 kW 30' tall, 4' diameter unit that spins in position.
The straight blade Darrieus design was introduced in June of 2008 and can produce 2,000 kW per year at an average windspeed of 12 mph.

It's designed as a self-started, works at low speeds or up to 100 mph winds.

The spire costs 5000 and another 1000 to install.

The company is also designing another, larger spire that will produce twice the energy at 2/3 the wind speed.

For more information contact
Mariah Power 748 S Meadows Parkway A-9, #329, Reno NV 89521
www.MariahPower.com

A "Wingmill"
Instead of a spinning blade, the Wind Wing is a horizontal blade that pivots up and down on a lever that drives a generator. The wind Wing is parallel to the ground until a breeze blows by.

W2Energy Development Corp says it works like your hand when you hold it out the car window. The wind pushes your hand up or down, depending on the angle you hold your hand.

It's a wing system on a lever 10' from the fulcrum or mount with a balancing weight 1' past the fulcrum. The force needed to move the lever up and down is used to drive the generator to produce electtricity. A sensor will change the direction of the leading adge of the wing as it reaches the top or botoom of the stroke. A weather vane keeps the wing pointed directly into the wind at all times. (the picture looks like bi-plane wings stacked on a pole)

They are projecting it will cost up to 80% less than a traditional propller style windmill.

The company is also working on a Water Wing that will work with river and ocean currents.

For more Information Contact
W2 Energy Development Corp 50 Castilian Dr Suite 2, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 or
ron.pretlac @ W2EnergyCorp.com
www.W2EnergyCorp.com

Theories On The Environment

10/26 Theory On Drought Monitoring
8/28 Desertification
8/20 Wind Turbines Along Highways - updated 8/29
Genetically Engineered Plants Destroying Bees?
Radio Frequencies and Bees
Global Warming

Editorial Letter Wind Turbine Highways

Microturbines would allow us to use our highways to create electricity. 133 words.

Let us become the Valley of Ingenuity. Let us make our highways more than just roads.

Sound-reducing walls will be built to improve the quality of life throughout the area, reducing the ubiquitous noise pollution.

Within these walls will be the electrical infrastructure for wind turbines. Variable speed micro-turbines will be placed along the traffic corridors using natural and man-made winds for power production. This electricity will power the lights, rest stops, and toll booths.

Prairie grasses will be planted in the greenways, filtering gross particulates and carbon dioxide from the air. It will be sold and harvested frequently to produce ethanol, helping fund further construction projects and create green business/jobs regionally.

Let us seize this opportunity to be at the forefront of ingenuity. It is an idea whose time is now.

Sincerely,

Variable Speed Wind Turbines

8/29 - Wrote a letter to my paper's editor yesterday. I live in a place that used to be called the Valley of Opportunity - Which way EJ? is what immigrants knew to say in English, landing at Ellis Island.
I asked that we become the Valley of Innovation. Take our highways, put up sound barrier walls that included electric infrastructure for the wind turbines, and then also plant prairie grass in the greenways to be bought and harvested by biofuel companies to make ethanol from. We have a company here in the region which would do well by this idea. I doubt anything will come of it, but it's always worth putting the ideas out there.

Along with the accompanying article, I'd like to add a question/theory.
Why can't we take this technology - designed for atop buildings - and use it on our nation's highways? Think about it. If you have ever been on the side of a highway - major or not - you know how much air is moved by passing cars and tractor trailors.

We will never do away with travel. So why not let it offset its impact by generating electricity? Even if it's only enough to power the lights and the signs along the highways, it would be a significant improvement over nothing.

No landscape impact that hasn't already occurred. No "ugly" farms of turbines setting up on hill tops or perpetually windy areas. And most highways I know, already have a wind tunnel effect, even without vehicles passing. Noise pollution? Like there isn't already that associated with highways?

The technology is there. Why not use it?

Rather than build farms of towering wind turbines in rural areas, some companies are designing "micro," or small-scale, turbines that fit on top of buildings. The idea is to generate electricity from wind in urban or suburban settings.
"We want to integrate these small wind turbines on buildings in plain sight," said Paul Glenney, director of energy initiatives at Monrovia, Calif.-based AeroVironment. "We think this can really communicate the generation of clean electricity."
In their pitch for the technology, the companies are going beyond satisfying the growing interest in clean forms of energy. AeroVironment, Aerotecture and a handful of other businesses are marketing their turbines not just as power generators, but also as attractive additions to existing structures.
Right now, giant turbines built by the likes of GE Energy and Siemens are still the norm in the wind power industry, and on-building versions are rare. Newcomers are trying different tacks to break into the market. While some such as Clipper Windpower are producing entire devices, others are focusing on providing specific components of a turbine.
"We're tracking over 20 different emerging wind technology companies in our proprietary deals database, and that list keeps growing," said Robert Day, a partner at Expansion Capital Partners which specializes in clean technologies.
Overall, the wind industry is booming, experts said. The American Wind Energy Association said that last year 2,500 megawatts of new generation equipment were installed in 22 states, valued at $3 billion.
Wind architectureAeroVironment, which is perhaps best known for its unmanned aircraft technologies, has a project under development from its Architectural Wind energy technology division.
The turbines look like large fans in square housings. They are specifically designed for placement on the top of steel-reinforced, flat-roofed commercial buildings such as a warehouse or "big box" retail store like Home Depot, Glenney said.
The turbines can be lined up next to each other to aggregate power generation, and the fans will spin even in a very slow wind of a few miles an hour.
The company has set up a few beta sites to test various factors, including its cost-effectiveness, the amount of noise it generates, and the potential impact on birds and bats (the turbines have a grate on both sides).
AeroVironment has not yet decided whether to commercialize the products. But in presentations with potential customers, the company has gotten a good reception, Glenney said. Business owners and municipalities are eager to find sources of clean electricity for a variety of reasons, including concerns over global warming and dependence on oil from unstable parts of the world.
"Lots of companies just want to reduce the footprint that a business leaves" on the planet, Glenney said. "And they want to educate their stakeholders--their customers, their pupils--on these issues."
Chicago-based Aerotecture is taking a similar "architectural" approach to wind power generation, although with a substantially different design.
Invented by University of Illinois professor Bil Becker, the company's Aeroturbine product uses a helix-shaped turbine placed inside of a cylinder. The turbines, which are 10 feet long, can be placed in many positions and take advantage of variable wind, according to the company.
"It's not fussy about gusty or turbulent winds. It's very amenable. It's the microclimate of the building that you have to look at," said Lesleigh Lippitt, co-founder of Aerotecture.
The company, which is in the process of commercializing the product, is negotiating with Chicago city officials over an installation at the Daley Center, which would set Aeroturbines at the top of the 650-foot building, she said. Other placements are under discussion, including underneath San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Lippitt said.
Other companies building similar micro wind products for urban or suburban areas include Finland's Windside, and the U.K.'s Windsave and Renewable Devices. There's also a product line called Urban Turbines, from Dutch company Ecofys.
Also on the market are several turbine products, such as Southwest Windpower, designed for remote homes or boats. Mix and matchExpansion Capital's Day said that small-scale wind technologies have a viable role in the bigger picture of power generation.
Placing a 300-foot high turbine in downtown San Francisco is problematic. But distributed, or on-site, electricity generation systems can help customers get around the transmission bottlenecks and reliability problems of the wholesale electricity grid, Day said.
He added that even small-scale turbines are not immune to the challenges that the overall wind industry faces, such as concerns over noise and cost efficiency