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EarthTronics intros “wind turbine in a box”

June 23, 2008 · Print This Article

If $15,000 sounds a little steep for a micro wind turbine that can only supply 20% of your home’s energy needs, you might want to wait until 2009, when EarthTronics starts selling it’s innovative “turbine in a box.” The green tech startup has teamed up with Michigan’s Grand Valley State University to develop and start production on a 36″ off-the-shelf model that will be priced around $2,000.

At a fraction of the price of it’s closest competitor — the Swift — that micro turbine can supposedly put out 10-20% of

the average home’s electricity usage. Its rare gear-less design additionally allows the turbine to produce energy at wind speeds as low as 3mph, which manufacture it useful in a much wider area of wind conditions than other micro wind options — IF, in fact, that miraculous out-of-the-box turbine can deliver. According to EarthTronics, that renewable dynamo could be in production by the first quarter of 2009. At $2,000 a pop, it’s easy to imagine these turbines appearing on thousands and thousands of roofs in only a few years.

[via Earth2Tech]

[Source] Josh Loposer

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Written by admin · Filed Under Alternative Energy, Green, Tech 
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One Response to “EarthTronics intros “wind turbine in a box””

  1. DanB on July 4th, 2008 8:01 am

    I did find one article with some details.

    This sort of garbage comes along all the time and I don’t mind calling a spade a spade when I see it. Lots of details are missing but two things stand out in my mind. Its 36″ in diameter (that’s the main thing). It’s to be roof mounted!

    They claim it’s unique because its ‘gearless’ - I should challenge anybody to show me a modern small wind turbine that is not ‘gearless’! That’s not unique. I don’t see much unique about the machine other than it’s strange appearance and the tail being a bit too short.

    First problem - small swept area (36″ diameter). They claim it will produce energy in a 3mph wind. If you do the math and work out the energy available in a 3mph wind for a machine of that diameter you find that - if it’s a *perfect* wind turbine, about 1 Watt is available! In a 20mph wind, if its ‘perfect’ (no wind turbine is) about 150 Watts. Reality is going to be closer to half that.

    Another problem… the roof of a house (especially in an urban or suburban environment) is a bad place for a wind turbine, it tends to be turbulent, wind speeds tend to be low. To be cost effective - wind turbines need to be well above buildings, trees, etc.

    I think there are two possibilities here - either the folks behind this turbine don’t know what they’re talking about, or they’re scam artists (that is my opinion) - these sorts of ‘new inventions’ come along all the time in wind power and it’s frustrating - it’s misleading to the public because they get so much press, and it gives small wind a bad name.

    We are at a point in history when it’s more important than ever to be using our resources wisely. When it comes to energy, we need to get the best bang for our buck. With wind power, that involves putting machines on windy sites, on tall towers. Wind energy makes good sense for urban/suburban places - it’s accomplished by puttting large, utility scale machines on the very best sites and bringing that energy to the end user with the power grid! It does not involve lots of tiny roof mounted wind turbines. This stuff has been tried many times and it’s well proven *not* to be cost effective or even close.

    Here is a page that roughly explains the physics involved.
    http://otherpower.com/bottom_line.shtml

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