May 192015
 

These are kinda neat:

Vortex bladeless turbines wobble to generate energy

Basically, it’s like a giant stalk of wheat that waves in the breeze; as it shakes back and forth the “root” of it wags around past magnets, generating electricity. Efficiency is meh, total power output is meh, but ground footprint is small and you can pack ’em together. And unlike a standard turbine, I bet you could disguise these fairly well as, say pine trees. And they won’t chop birds to bits, cast seizure-inducing shadows or drive people bugnuts with WHOP-WHOP-WHOP.

vortex-bladeless-wind-turbine

 Posted by at 10:21 pm