Sustainable Urban Wind Power!

:: Absolutely sensational small scale wind turbine technology that will allow you to "stick it the man (power company)"!
++ Environ Tech: Netherlands / Delft University of Technology / Turby B.V.

This 2.5 kilowatt wind generator designed for rooftops can generate enough electricity to reduce the electric bill of a typical home by two thirds.

The Turby is a brand of vertical axis Darrieus wind turbine. The three vertical aerofoil blades have a helical twist of 60 degrees, similar to Gorlov's water turbines. Since the wind pulls each blade around on both the windward and leeward sides of the turbine, this feature spreads the torque evenly over the entire revolution, thus preventing the destructive pulsations (and noise) of the straight-bladed wind generator.

Another advantage of the helical twist is that the blades generate torque well from upward-slanting airflow. This is negligible in open country, but tall buildings and cliff faces generate a bow wave which directs airflow up and over them.

Turbines mounted on building rooftops or clifftops are exposed to significantly slanting flow, and the Turby can extract more useful energy from it than a propeller-type turbine can.

The turbine measures 2.0 meters in diameter by 2.9 meters high (including generator), and weighs 136kg. It is specified to generate in winds of between 4 meters/second and 14 meters/second, and can survive winds of 55 meters/second.

Rated power at 14 meters/second is 2.5 killowatts. The AC (Alternating Current) output from the synchronous generator is rectified to DC (Direct Current), then inverted to AC. The Turby's angled layout of the magnets aids in minimizing startup torque.

Note from Technophile: Couple the Turby with some PV (Photo Voltaic) solar panels and you could either remove yourself from the grid and become self sufficient, or make you electric meter run backwards and sell electricity to the power company. The neat thing about this sort of "hybrid" power system is that normally when the sun doesn't shine, the wind is blowing (like in the case of a storm). What can make you real happy is when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing at the same time!

:: Source: [Beyond Tomorrow]
:: Innovation: Absolutely sensational small scale wind turbine technology!
:: Available: Now.
:: Cost: £ 11,466 (turbine and generator).

Note from Dan Lelevier, ET (Extreme Technology) Consumer Product Advisor: You can't get a better cellular phone deal than this! LetsTalk is an independent reseller of cellular phones and services plans. You can actually get a better deal through them than you can by going directly through the carrier (they activate phones for Alltel, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint, T-mobile, and Verizon). They also offer pre-paid solutions from MetroPCS and Cricket. Their website offers user-friendly features such as "find and compare", "quick search", and "top sellers". The bottom line: Same plan, better phone, less out of pocket expense! If you get a Turby, you can use your new phone to call everyone and let them know how much you saved on your cell phone and how much you're saving on your electric bill!