Inventor Shawn Frayne went looking for a way to generate wind power cheaply and on a small scale for impoverished places like villages in Haiti that aren’t on the electrical grid and his “microwind” invention - inspired by the scientific effect known as “aerolastic flutter” which caused the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in 1940 - may revolutionize the wind power industry.
Frayne’s micro wind turbine doesn’t have a turbine at all - and the invention, called a “Windbelt,” can generate a lot more electricity from a lot less wind.
Popular Mechanics, which gave the Windbelt one of its 2007 Breakthrough Awards, describes the device as a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils.
Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes. “Kerosene is smoky and it’s a fire hazard,” says Peter Haas, founder of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, which helps people in developing countries to get environmentally sound access to clean water, sanitation and energy.
Frayne discusses the invention in this video. For more on the Windbelt, see the website of Humdinger Wind Energy LLC.
2 Comments
Bill - see my post on this topic from a couple of days ago - http://ecotality.com/life/2007/10/13/popular-mechanics-honors-breakthrough-in-micro-wind/
For sume reason the video link in the article did’n succeed in showing the video.
I found it on google instead: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=994507113743424093
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