New wind turbine technology seems to come out almost every day and renewable energy is witnessing some pretty exciting innovations hitting the commercial sector. The latest is a design that’s inspired by the sails found on racing yachts and it’s aesthetic enough to not even look like a functional piece of equipment.
The new unit is called the Windstrument and it’s ideal for urban areas. Its size overcomes one of the shortcomings of traditional, giant bladed versions that need vast tracts of land that aren’t available in dense, built-up areas. That’s not its only advantage, however, as you’ll read about below.
The Windstrument is powerful, bird-safe, and scalable
Wind power solutions for urban areas need to be quite different from the wind farm installations that we commonly see on the peripheries of built-up areas where space is available to install the huge, spinning, bladed turbines most commonly used to generate great outputs of electricity.
In addition to requiring so much land, some of the shortcomings of traditional wind turbines include noise pollution and harm to birdlife. However, the Windstrument is described as “quiet, powerful, bird-safe, and scalable.” In two years of trials, not a single bird has been harmed. Without even seeing the unit, these are the things we want to hear.
What makes the Windstrument such an attractive “instrument”?
The term for the shape of the Windstrument’s blades is “conical helicoid,” the same form as racing sails on small seagoing craft that also harvest the wind, albeit for a different purpose. The blades are affixed to the sides of a mast in a manner that resembles branches on a tree.
This configuration makes the blades capable of maintaining functionality even in high and gusty winds, which is another shortcoming of traditional systems that the Windstrument is able to overcome.
No birds were harmed in the making of this turbine
Unlike many other kinds of turbines, the Windstrument’s design displaces air in a way that birds don’t get drawn in by the sucking conditions created by giant bladed turbines. Trials were held in a heavily bird-populated wetland environment and not one fatality was recorded. In fact, not a single one was harmed in any way by coming into contact with the turbine.
In the United States alone, wind turbines are responsible for between 140,000 and 670,000 avian fatalities each year, a situation that understandably has environmentalists up in arms.
The Windstrument will be in reach of the average consumer
Another one of the Windstrument selling points is its affordability. The manufacturers promise to deliver a commercial product soon that they are certain will be within the reach of the average person and can be installed to supplement power to one’s home or small business.
Some of the applications of the Windstrument include supplying power where connecting to the grid is not possible, or to power devices such as external lighting or sensors, or simply for clean energy-conscious individuals to replace electricity they would previously have drawn from the grid.
The benefits of small-scale turbines for home power generation
If you’re still not convinced, here are three reasons why investing in a small, home-sized wind turbine could revolutionize your energy situation:
- You’ll save on your electricity bill even if you just use the turbine to supplement your power consumption and you’ll reap significant savings in the long term.
- Installing an independent power-producing system will reduce your dependence on the electricity grid, so if it fails, you will still have power.
- Home-based wind turbines are generally easy to install, saving you the stress and cost of a complex process.
The rapid advancements in wind power technology mean you have new options arriving on the market almost every day. Another home energy solution available to you is a vertical turbine you can buy online and install yourself.
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