Looks like it's more wildlife friendly too.

Want!!!

That was my first thought as the problem this fixed. Because it's a solid cylinder visually, birds would be far less likely to get caught, rather than by the fast-moving blades of a normal turbine that chop through apparently clear sky.

Why is this more auto governing for high wind conditions and yet effective at low wind speeds (and therefore avoidant of overspeeding or stressing the axle/mounting)? Because it's so much more compact? Lower forces over all?

And does the low wind/high wind envelope mean that someone has to be clever somewhere else? Like in forcing a transmission to gear up the speed at low wind speeds?

Sorry, not an engineer.

It's a guess, but I think because the blades are so short and wide, they produce more torque at much lower speeds, so yes, likely gearing is needed, but most turbines have some sort of transmission these days. Because the blades are so short and wide, they also don't go as fast under strong winds, there's more air resistance and far less tip speed. That means far less vibration and stress on the hub/trans.

... until a manta ray tries to have sex with it.

Won't somebody please think of the manta rays.

Would be interested to see the total life cycle efficiency of these.

One of the problems with wind turbines is the energy cost of the foundations. Most large wind turbines require a lot of concrete to be mounted on. Concrete is a horrible material in terms of CO2 production, so a wind turbine actually has to operate for several years before it becomes carbon neutral.

This looks like it might solve that problem, but on the other hand, I'm unsure if it would scale well.

I dunno, I'm not an engineer, so happy to listen to someone more knowledgeable on this.

Thank you, Thor and C'Thor, for protecting us with your wind turbines -- and for secretly engineering a device to one day unleash thunder and lightning upon the enemies of humanity.

Would you be able to mount these to roofs? Both in a residential and commercial/industrial setting? And is there a bigger energy payoff than solar I wonder? Why do I have so many questions?!

Well--thanks for the guess! it's helpful...

Because---nice video, but not so many numbers included...

These look cool and would work great for generating localized power. But I don't see exactly how they fix the problem with the giant wind turbines. They don't even discuss how well they might scale to provide not just localized power but enough to power towns & cities like turbines do.

I'm curious about how much noise they produce. One of the problems with the traditional wind turbine design is they are quite noisy.

These use wind-drag to generate movement. So the scoop is grabbing the wind, while the backside of the opposing panel is letting more wind slip by. The opposing panel is still receiving some of the force of the wind, so it will help govern the speed.

The big windmill types most people are familiar with use an aerofoil, so it's actually the wind generating lift on one side which is turned into rotational force. Since there is no opposing drag created in the design they will get into over speed conditions.

Wow---thanks!
Very helpful!