I’ve been a fan of wind mills and wind turbines for some time now, but what’s really caught my attention has been VAWTs, Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. They’re just like a normal wind turbine, except the generator is mounted vertically rather than horizontally, which is then hooked up to the blades.
The nice thing about VAWTs over HAWTs is that they spin regardless of the direction of the wind without having to re-orient the blades. The downside is that most VAWTs have to be “started” by spinning the blades so they “catch” the wind and start spinning on their own.
This VAWT has a helical design so that part of the blade’s surface is always in the wind and it starts requires less power to start spinning on its own. Not only that, it looks really cool in the process.
[ Video ]
For more information see Quiet Revolution.
