Geek In Me

by Paul Miller via engadget.com

As much as we prefer a good old-fashioned bird-killin’ three blade wind turbine, apparently they cause a bit too much vibration and disturbance for regular home use. That’s where the Energy Ball comes in, with its spherical shape that captures wind less obtrusively and yet more efficiently. At least that’s what we’re told, we’re a bit short on details. We do know that it’s in the prototype stages and was designed by Swedish company Home Energy, who claims their smallest Energy Ball can provide about 15% of the necessary energy to power the average Swedish home.





by Nilay Patel via engadget.com

We’ve seem some impressive wind power tech, but a new breed of small, high-power wind turbines could potentially bring efficient wind power home. Developed by an inventor named Doug Selsam, the new turbines have rotors just 14-18 inches in diameter, but can produce 200 watts in a 20MPH wind, and much more than that at higher wind speeds. The trick is using high-strength carbon-fiber materials that allow several rotors to be hooked up as one — in strong winds a thirteen-rotor system can produce enough juice to blow out a bank of car headlights “like flashblulbs.” That’s pretty impressive — especially since the system is light and balanced enough to be held up with one hand. No word on when or how we might see these hit the public, but we can see some pretty sweet applications — laptops in the park, anyone?