Check Out the Windspire: Backyard Vertical Wind Turbine Video Clip
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 08.18.08
A bit less than a year ago we reported on the Windspire a 1 kW vertical wind turbine designed to be placed in your backyard which its manufacturer, Mariah Power claims will generate 25-30% of your home’s power. In the video above you can get a quick glimpse of the Windspire in action and listen to the president of Mariah Power tout his product. Though you don’t get to see one, there’s talk of a 3 kW version which is claimed will be able to supply 100% of your household power needs.
The clip’s from Voice of America news, so you’ve got to sit through that strangely official “technology of tomorrow, today!” voice, but I think it’s always good to get a glimpse of the technology we talk about here on TreeHugger in person, ur, in motion, so take a look at this one.
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Very nice, i was impressed by how quiet it was, he was standing next to it with an open mic and I couldn't hear anything
Another piece in the puzzle.
At last we are approaching the point where we can harvest the energy that is all about us, rather than drawing out the black blood of the earth, and being chained to our energy as a slave is tied to his wheel.
$5,000 and a 9 MPH startup speed. I'm better off with 1KW of PV solar, but it is nice. I noticed we had 12 MPH winds today on the weather station, so I'd get a little power out of it, but it would take forever to pay for itself. If I had money to throw around I'd get both PV and solar. :)
uhh these need to be on every cell tower in the nation !
Hi,
Very nice indeed.
But as mentioned in this blog, as a private person, it’s rather impossible to install a private wind mill in Flanders. There are a lot of mills suitable for domestic use and don’t have any issues as mentioned in the video clip.
Eddy
It sounds unrealistic to think that the turbine can power 100% of a household's power needs. It *might* do that, but 3% of the time. Generally, it would only produce about 30% of it's rated output..
I love wind energy, but we have be sincere about the technology.
At $5000, that's not bad. I'd like to see it around 2 or 3 thousand before I could justify that cost. This would be great to supplement solar power generation though. On stormy-looking days with low sun, it's usually very windy. Love it.
huh, i wonder if its still down at the botanical garden. I may have to bike over there and check it out. I'll even take my noisemeter. lol
I like how they poo-pooed full size wind turbines. It's not even the same target market!
Always look at the performance graph, that's the only ting that can give you any idea of the turbines kWh production. Usually they rate them at their highest winds speed so you need to look at the performance graph to see what it would do at the wind speed you have at your site. We were looking into a PacWind VAT but were warned off by other installers. The Ropatec VAT is supposed to be the best but I don't know much about it.
Wind power drops dramatically as you get close to ground level. The Mariah Power unit is a beautiful unit to look at, but on that short little tower, it is below the level of decent winds at most locations. Also, wind speeds at the top are likely to be stronger than at the low end of the rotor. Power from the top will be driving the lower portion. This is not good for efficiency. Put his on a 50ft tower, and it might do really well.