For nearly as long as people have harnessed wind to perform work, it has been used to move water from one place to another. Whether used for agricultural irrigation, wetlands drainage or pumping water from wells, wind machines have long been a relatively cheap and easy way to pump water, particularly in off-grid applications where electric alternatives are impractical or impossible. And while a handful of companies still make wind pumps, little has changed in the underlying technology for nearly a century — until now. A Massachusetts company announced last week it had sold its first wind-powered water pump system in Colorado.

Worcester, Massachusetts-based Mass Megawatts has developed a wind-powered water pumping unit that it says provides a lower-cost solution when compared to traditional water pumping systems, including those powered by diesel generators.

Mass Megawatts’ wind-powered water pump uses the company’s patented MMW wind augmenter technology to increase the wind velocity directed at the wind turbine. By funneling the wind into narrow channels where it speeds up, the augmenter is responsible for increasing power to its turbines by an average of 70 percent.

According to the company, over three times as much power is generated by its augmenter technology compared to the production wind turbines of an equal power rating in an “un-augmented” air stream. And the technology, according to company documents, does not require the same high-demand components used in other wind turbine technologies, thereby keeping costs down.

The technology is also not limited to use as a wind pump. The company is developing wind machines that generate electricity which can be stored in on-site battery banks.

The company says its technology is scalable from smaller 10 kW ‘home and farm’ systems to multi-megawatt utility installations and provides solutions to the two major wind project stumbling blocks: tower height and lower wind resource. But while the system may have a lower profile than many turbine technologies, the bulky framework required by the wind augmenter may still make it unpopular with some.

Mass Megawatts (OTCBB: MMMW), which began building its turbine arrays and MMW wind augmenters at a Colorado plant in late 2011, is a publicly-traded company with less than twelve million shares issued and outstanding.

Article by Timothy Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

Related posts:

• Crops With Deeper Roots Could Boost CO2 Storage, Study Says
• Coal and the Road to Copenhagen: Win $10k for Clean Energy Project
• Creating ‘Living’ Buildings With Materials That Pull CO2 from Air
• Chinese Solar Power Panel Lights Up Investment
• Rebuilding Greener Neighborhoods in New Orleans

KiteGen thinks that current wind technology only scratches the surface of what’s possible with wind energy. That’s because wind turbines cannot reach higher and touch altitude wind. Rarely wind farms are sited at more than 100m above the ground; the higher they go, the heavier, more unstable and expensive the apparatus becomes.

The company’s technology takes a higher flight with wind technology. Its system consists of tethered kites of a predefine flight path in order to rotate a ground-based turbine. The large wings (or kites) in the KiteGen system are driven by avionic sensors located in a dome base that also houses an electric generator. The control system is designed to automatically guide the kites in order to rotate the turbine and maximize torque. As altitude increases, average wind speeds increase as well.

In the air, the system subtracts energy from the wind at an altitude of 2,624,7/3,280.8 ft with power kites and semi-rigid automatically piloted high efficiency air foils. On the ground, lies all the heavy machinery for power generation. To connect the two parts of the system, high resistance lines transmitting the traction of the kites and at the same time controlling their direction and angle to the wind.

One of the advantages of the KiteGen concept is space efficiency. While a 1000 MW wind turbine farms requires an area of of 96.5 to 115.8 square miles, KiteGen says would need only five to six square kilometers for the same output. It estimates its wind plants could produce around 500 GWh yearly.

The company also envisages big savings in energy costs of US$0.02-$0.05 per kWh, as compared to $0.05-$0.09 per kWh for fossil energy and $0.15 per kWh for current windmills.

KiteGen was founded in 2007 in Chieri, northern Italy and is the brainchild of Massimo Ippolito. Its engineers are working with another company called Sequoia Automation S.r.l., which is developing technical software and mechanical engineering.

The company is seeking investors to produce the first full-sized model and is also developing an offshore system.

Follow the link to find out more about KiteGen’s technology. What do you think? Promising technology or pipe dream?

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• New Website Asks For Support For Wind Power Jobs
• Will the Japanese Wind Tower Be the Future of Wind Power?
• South Korea to Invest $35 Billion in Renewable Energy by 2015
• Small Scale Wind Power: It’s Beautiful, But Not Everyone is Convinced
• Siemens Aims to Reach the Top of the Wind Power Market

An Australian company called Renewable Energy Solutions Australia Holdings Ltd. (RESA) has created what it says is a super quiet and efficient wind energy turbine.

Suggestively called Eco Whisper, the wind turbine employs 30 smaller ones capped with a specially designed cowl ring that keeps them silent in most meteorological conditions. A cone shape allows the blades to automatically rotate into the direction of the wind, with no need for a heavy tail structure.

Besides being more silent, the blades are more efficient, too. RESA says the turbines increase efficiency by 30 per cent at average wind speeds, and will keep rotating even when winds are very slow.

Main features:
.20kW horizontal axis wind turbine
.Virtually silent operation
.6.5m blade diameter
.21.1m height
.30 blades extending outwards
.Dynamic slew drive
.Solid, lightweight structure
.High performance in all wind conditions

The manufacturer says EcoWhisper is suitable for commercial, manufacturing and industrial sites, airports, ports, mining resource facilities, council sites and industrial development sites. It can also be installed on shopping centres, industrial parks, schools, universities and others. Off grid rural communities could also benefit.

It sounds like an exciting new development in wind turbine design!

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• Power Flowers Make Peace With Wind Turbine Critics
• New Grid-Connected Turbine Makes Wind Energy Accessible
• Sauer Energy Unveils Prototype Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine
• European Companies Float an Idea for Wind Power
• New Offshore Wind Turbine Built To Survive Rough Seas

In addition to the high legal fees and exposure to potentially hefty damages payouts that accompany allegations of intellectual property infringement, such lawsuits can also be dark clouds over defendants, hampering their ability to do business.

A salient example of this in cleantech is the news that Mainstream Renewable Power (MRP) has ditched Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel and is looking to alternative turbine suppliers for the 1GW of wind farm projects it has planned in Ireland.

The move by MRP comes in the wake of two IP infringement lawsuits filed by American Superconductor (AMSC) against Sinovel in China.

In that litigation AMSC has accused Sinovel of copyright infringement and theft of trade secrets in connection with allegedly stolen wind turbine control source code.

This Recharge News piece notes that an MRP spokesman said the company is “fully aware” of the legal dispute, and the article attributes the switch by MRP to the litigation:

MRP’s decision is the clearest evidence yet of the potential damage Sinovel faces in Western markets as a result of its legal battle with AMSC, which is pursuing the turbine supplier in several Chinese courts for $1.2bn in compensation and damages over alleged intellectual property (IP) infringement and unpaid bills.

This is the not the first time allegations of IP infringement have hurt the business of a wind turbine supplier. Mitsubishi has claimed that GE’s accusations of infringement of several variable speed wind turbine patents virtually shut down its U.S. business.

According to Mitsubishi’s court filings (mitsubishi_antitrust_complaint.pdf), its $2 billion in annual U.S. sales of variable speed wind turbines dropped to zero after initiation of the first patent infringement suit by GE in early 2008.

Mitsubishi may have begun to recover, however. Windpower Monthly recently reported that utility Duke Energy has ordered 202 MW of the accused 2.4 MW turbine from Mitsubishi for a wind project in Texas (see my previous post here).

The article says the Duke order is the first since the advent of the patent dispute with GE.

But it’s clear that even before any ultimate infringement verdict, pending green patent litigation can have serious ramifications outside the courtroom.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

Related posts:

• Duke’s Order to Blow Away Cloud Hanging Over Mitsubishi’s 2.4 MW Turbine?
• Growth of Cloud Computing Will Yield Large Reduction in Energy Usage
• Small Wind Turbines Create Jobs Across the US
• Cloud Computing Can Reduce Carbon Emissions By Half, Report Says
• New Grid-Connected Turbine Makes Wind Energy Accessible

With the rapid growth of the wind power industry in recent years, and the expected continued expansion to meet EU targets by 2050, the sector is in danger of suffering a skills shortage throughout the various types of employment within the industry.

The EWEA’s wind at work report of 2009 concluded that on average 15.1 jobs for a year are created in the EU for every MW of power installed per year, and 0.4 long term jobs are created per MW of cumulative capacity in operations and maintenance and other activities. The EWEA data from 2007 showed that 108,000 people were employed in the wind industry throughout the EU; 37% of which were employed by wind turbine manufacturers and 22% by component suppliers. The report also estimated that a further 42,000 people were employed indirectly as a result of the wind energy industry; making it responsible for 150,000 jobs in total. That figure is expected to double by 2020, based on estimates of a total of 180GW of installed wind power, and half of those jobs are expected to be based offshore.

RenewableUK (formerly the BWEA) studies in 2008 showed that 5,000 people were employed in the UK in the wind power industry. With an expected increase to 34GW of installed power by 2020, the employment figure is estimated to rise to 57,000. Among the professions to be singled out as being in danger of a shortage were health and safety specialists.

There are several key factors to consider in the training and development of employees to work on offshore wind farms. There is already clear lack of skilled workers, and in particular health and safety officials; this must be addressed by the wind energy industry, and training requirements should be set out on an industry-wide basis in order to quickly fill the gap. The offshore wind power industry is still a relatively immature industry and data relating to health and safety offshore is limited; simply due to our limited experience of offshore wind farms in deep water. It must be an ongoing and fluid process to develop the safety standards for offshore installations, and therefore the health and safety training for staff. Cooperation needs to continue between the industry’s main players in terms of sharing information about the challenges and incidents they experience in practice. This will allow the necessary standards to be introduced, and in turn training can be developed to create a knowledgeable and skilled workforce for the future.

Article by IQPC is a leading organizer of about 2,000 worldwide conferences, seminars, and related learning programs every year. The company is organizing the Health & Safety in Offshore Wind Conference from 12 – 14 December, 2011 at the Swissôtel Bremen, Germany. Free whitepapers, articles and podcasts on health and safety in offshore wind are available on the website.

Related posts:

• New Jersey to Take Lead in Offshore Wind Energy?
• Offshore Wind Market To Surge In Next Six Years, Report Says
• Offshore Wind Turbines Could Cost 30% Less
• U.S. Offshore Wind Could Provide 20 Percent of Electricity by 2030
• U.S. Commits $50.5 Million to Promote Offshore Wind Industry

I’ve written extensively about the patent infringement and antitrust litigation between wind power rivals GE and Mitsubishi (see, e.g., previous posts here and here).

While that legal battle spans multiple venues, encompasses several different patents, and includes many patent and antitrust issues, the heart of the dispute is the allegation that Mitsubishi’s 2.4 MW turbine infringes GE’s patented technologies.

More particularly, GE has asserted infringement of its patented variable speed technology, particularly as claimed in U.S. Patent No. 5,083,039, a seminal patent relating to methods for enabling turbines to efficiently feed power from wind of variable speeds into the utility grid.

Another key patent asserted by GE is U.S. Patent No. 7,321,221, relating to low voltage ride through technology for stabilizing the supply voltage to a wind turbine after voltage drops without jeopardizing the electrical components of the turbine.

In its antitrust case against GE, Mitsubishi has alleged that GE’s patent infringement claims are baseless and are intended to intimidate Mitsubishi’s potential customers.

According to Mitsubishi, its $2 billion in annual U.S. sales of variable speed wind turbines has dropped to zero since initiation of the first patent infringement suit in early 2008.

In a glimmer of good news for Mitsubishi, Windpower Monthly recently reported that at least one customer is undeterred by the cloud over Mitsubishi’s 2.4 MW turbine.

According to the article, the utility Duke Energy has ordered 202 MW of the controversial turbines for its Los Vientos II wind project in Texas. The article says it is the first order since the advent of the patent dispute with GE.

It will be interesting to see if this vote of confidence by Duke clears away the cloud over Mitsubishi’s 2.4 MW turbine and leads to more orders.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

Related posts:

• Green IP Litigation Is A Black Cloud Over Wind Turbine Makers
• New Front Opens in Wind Patent War as Mitsubishi Stages Intervention
• Court Orders Former GE Employee to Cease Wind Patent Licensing Activity
• Growth of Cloud Computing Will Yield Large Reduction in Energy Usage
• Cloud Computing Can Reduce Carbon Emissions By Half, Report Says

In what is emerging as a major green IP story, not just of technology but of international intrigue, American Superconductor (AMSC) recently filed two lawsuits against its erstwhile customer, Chinese wind energy system maker Sinovel.

Both cases involve allegations that a former AMSC employee who was arrested in Austria in July was indirectly paid by Sinovel for portions of AMSC’s wind turbine control software source code. The control software was developed by AMSC for use with Sinovel’s 1.5MW wind turbines.

AMSC accuses Sinovel of unauthorized use of the turbine control software source code and the binary code, or upper layer, of its software for the PM3000 power converters in the 1.5 MW turbines.

AMSC also believes the former employee illegally used the source code to develop a software modification so Sinovel could circumvent the encryption and remove technical protection measures on certain power converters used with the turbines.

Wind technology and wind patent expert Philip Totaro, principal at Totaro & Associates, said the disputed technology relates to “the low-voltage ride through (LVRT) capability, which provides stability of the wind turbine/farm in case of voltage fluctuation or drop-out on the grid.”

Totaro had this to add about the significance of the technology at issue to Sinovel in the context of an evolving Chinese wind industry:

The Chinese grid requirements related to LVRT capability have evolved due to the large-scale deployment of wind turbines on their grid, and stability has become an increasing issue. Anyone who cannot meet the new grid requirements will not receive permits/approval to deploy their turbines. With the size of a company like Sinovel (named #2 in market share globally based on 2010 sales volume) and the ongoing capital and operating revenue required to sustain their business, they are obligated to maintain their sales volumes or be forced into massive layoffs and downsizing. This challenge was made even more difficult since the Chinese market demand has decreased in the past 10 months and [Sinovel] had a volume supply contract with AMSC for converters with the LVRT capability.

According to a recent AMSC SEC filing, the allegations are the basis of two IP actions AMSC is seeking to file against Sinovel in China. AMSC submitted a first civil action application to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court for copyright infringement and a second civil action application to the Beijing Higher People’s Court for trade secret infringement.

However, in a reflection of the uncertainty surrounding enforcement of intellectual property rights in China, the SEC filing indicates that in each case the court must accept AMSC’s application for the case to proceed, “and there can be no assurance that the court will do so.”

In a related case, AMSC filed a copyright infringement complaint in the Hainan Province No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court against Dalian Guotong Electric (Guotong) and wind farm operator Huaneng Hainan Power.

According to the SEC filing, this complaint alleges that the defendants replaced AMSC”s PM1000 converters in certain Sinovel wind turbines with converters produced by Guotong and are using the replacement converters in conjunction with AMSC’s control software.

In light of the volume of clean tech business, technology transfer, and IP licensing done in China, these will be important cases to watch as barometers of IP enforcement there.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

Related posts:

• Green IP Litigation Is A Black Cloud Over Wind Turbine Makers
• Green Coalition Files Lawsuit Over U.S. Arctic Drilling Approval
• Global Warming Lawsuit
• Supreme Court Questions Global Warming Lawsuit
• Is China’s Wind Power Growth Sustainable?

The Washington Post’s assertions today about the Department of Energy’s loan programs today are both incomplete and inaccurate.

Here are the facts:  over the past two years, the Department of Energy’s Loan Program has supported a robust, diverse portfolio of more than 40 projects that are investing in pioneering companies as we work to regain American leadership in the global race for clean energy jobs.  These projects include major advances for our renewable power industry including the world’s largest wind farm, several of the world’s largest solar generation facilities, and one of the country’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants.  Collectively, the projects plan to employ more than 60,000 Americans, create tens of thousands more indirect jobs, provide clean electricity to power three million homes, and save more than 300 million gallons of gasoline a year, all while investing in American competitiveness. What matters to the men and women who have those jobs is that the investments that this Administration is making are helping to keep factories open and running. 

When the Washington Post claims that the program has created 3,500 jobs, here is what the reporters are excluding:

• 33,000 American auto jobs saved at Ford: The Post article does acknowledge that the program enabled Ford to modernize its factories to produce more fuel efficient vehicles, which a Ford spokeswoman credits for “helping retain the 33,000 jobs by ensuring our employees can build the fuel-efficient cars people want to drive.”
• More than 7,300 construction jobs: Many of the projects funded by the program are wind and solar power plants, which create significant numbers of construction jobs but once built can be operated inexpensively without a large workforce.  But the Washington Post chose to ignore all of those jobs.  If a community built a new highway or a bridge that employed 200 workers directly during construction – and many more in the supply chain — and that also strengthened the local economy by making it faster to transport goods, would anyone say that the project created zero jobs? 
• Supply chain jobs: While these jobs aren’t reflected in official government estimates because of the difficulty in obtaining a precisely accurate count, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  When a company spends $100 million or $200 million building a wind farm or a solar power plant, most of that economic value actually goes into the supply chain – creating huge manufacturing opportunities for the United States. 

In fact, when you look at the Washington Post’s graphic, you can see that the program has already created or saved roughly 44,000 jobs.  Many of the projects it has funded are just getting going, and many of the loans won’t even go out the door until the next few weeks.  Others have not ramped fully up to scale.  But we are on pace to achieve more than 60,000 direct jobs – and many more in the supply chain.

Here’s a simple example:

Last year, the Department awarded a loan guarantee to build the Kahuku wind farm in Hawaii.  It employed 200 workers during construction.  Those wind turbines were built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  The project also features a state of the art energy storage system supplied by a company in Texas.  The supply chain reached 104 U.S. businesses in 21 states.  But by the Washington Post’s count, none of those jobs – not even the 200 direct construction jobs – should count.  

What’s critically important and completely ignored by the Washington Post, is that the value of this program can’t be measured in operating jobs alone.  The investments are helping to build a new clean energy industry here in America.  We are now on pace to double renewable energy generation from wind and solar from the time the President took office.  Yet we are still in danger of falling behind China and other nations that are competing aggressively for leadership in these technologies.  This is a race we can and will win, but only if we make these investments today. These investments will pay dividends not just in today’s jobs but in entire industries and supply chains – and in cleaner air and water for our children and grandchildren. 

One of the goals of the program is to create projects that will encourage the private sector to take the financing risk on other, similar projects on its own.  If we can show, for example, that a commercial scale cellulosic biofuel plant in Iowa can succeed, the private sector will likely finance many more of them around the country.

America’s economic strength has been built on technological leadership.  The next great technological revolution is the clean energy revolution, and this Administration is committed to making sure that America will continue to lead the world.

Related posts:

• Story of Broke Nails the Truth About Oil and Clean Energy
• Solyndra: Illustrating a Recovery Act Supply Chain
• Why Clean Energy on Tribal Land isn’t Excess-it’s Essential
• Green Energy Act Surpasses Expectations
• “Corporate Personhood” and Energy Policy

Back in February we released the preliminary results of a patent landscape report, which identified both historical and future trends in the horizontal axis, utility-scale wind turbine industry.

We now have a more comprehensive view of those trends as a result of the analysis on the landscape of pending applications. With the completion of this work we have now analyzed over 1,900 US patents and over 1,500 published US pending applications.

There are now as many pending applications as issued patents, with 1,552 issued patents, 387 expired patents, and 1,561 pending applications. This confirms the deep focus on IP as a competitive differentiator in addition to a focus on product strategy. Top tier companies have vastly outstripped their competition in terms of the number of filings.

I. Industry Relevance: GE Leads

Once again an assessment of the relevance of the patent to the industry was performed and results were classified as low, medium, medium/high, and high. Definitions of this classification method are below.

The assessment of industry relevance serves the purpose of indicating the degree to which the patent owner has or is likely to assert their rights and seek licenses or otherwise enforce the patent. This should be an indication of the proverbial landmines to watch out for when navigating a technology and product roadmap through the landscape.

* Low – Not relevant to the currently pervasive set of technologies and products in the industry.
* Medium – May have been relevant in the past, but as technology evolves it is less prevalent. These are likely to shift to low in the future.
* Medium/High – Important items which the industry needs to be cognizant of, but these can likely be avoided / mitigated. Influence of things like technology trends and grid standards will ultimately determine relevance.
* High – Critical item which has been asserted, licensed or enforced, or else it is highly likely to be in the future.

For pending applications there is obviously a certain amount of variability and attempted claim breadth which does not ultimately manifest in the issued patent, if it subsequently issues at all.

Therefore, we are providing an assessment of industry relevance on the basis of the claim set published without investigation of the file history of each pending application to determine the likely scope of the subsequently issued claims at this point.

II. Component Trends: Blade Aero Dominates, Controls & Sensors Surge, Blade Structure/Manufacturing and Offshore Installation Emerge

The majority of the filing trends have been maintained, but a few noteworthy trend differences from the issued and expired patent landscape previously discussed and the comprehensive portfolio including all pending applications are clear.

Controls & Sensors have taken over the #2 spot behind Blades as the most commonly patented component in the wind turbine and this category is making a run at becoming #1.

Meanwhile, for the current #1 category, blade aero performance continues to be the dominant trend, but blade structure and manufacturing has quickly become an emerging trend with more recent applications.

The majority of the other categories have stayed in their relatively same positions when comparing the overall portfolio to just the currently issued patents, but one new category which has emerged is offshore installation vessels. This demonstrates that there is a concerted effort to make offshore more than just an important market segment, but a potential trend in technology development.

III. Technology Trends: Reliability Remains King

As for technologies, very few dramatic changes have occurred towards the top of the list, with Reliability still king in the wind industry.

The interesting trends are the emergence of Construction & Assembly (particularly in the transportation area), Manufacturing, Cost / Weight Reduction, and Service & Repair as wind OEMs, component vendors, and balance of plant (BOP) contractors get into the mix with ways to be more cost effective and improve quality in those areas.

Article by Philip Totaro, Principal at Totaro & Associates, a consulting firm focused on innovation strategy, competitive intelligence, product development and patent search.

Article appearing courtesy Green Patent Blog.

Related posts:

• Two Clean Tech Applications Enter Peer-to-Patent Review
• CleanTech Open Patent Strategies: Reexamination
• Canada Launches Green Patent Fast Track Program
• Duke’s Order to Blow Away Cloud Hanging Over Mitsubishi’s 2.4 MW Turbine?
• KIPO Green Tech Fast Track Inaccessible for Most Applicants

Most people think of massive wind farms when they think of wind power. But there’s a small revolution going on, and one that some people are, quite literally, screaming from the rooftops about.

One small wind technology recently appeared in Time Magazine’s list of Top 20 Green Tech Ideas. The company behind it is WindTronics, which has developed small turbine model of 6ft in diameter. It is called Honeywell Wind Turbine. Despite the small size, it can generate 1,500KW/h a year (or around 15% of a household’s energy needs), depending on wind strength in the period.

WindTronics‘ turbine contains no rotating gearbox to generate electricity, which makes it quieter. The blades are equipped with magnets at the tips and are enclosed in a wheel that contains coiled copper, which means that the entire turbine is an electric generator.

The Detroit News has an in-depth article about Ted Klein, an 84-year-old retiree in southeast Michigan, who bought one Honeywell unit. The article says the gearless turbine can generate electricity with wind speeds of 2 mph.

Klein seems to be happy with it. He says the wind turbine is very quiet and you can’t hear it turn even from the porch. Neighbors have not complained about it; they are just curious. It will take him years to recoup the money invested and intends to connect 12-volt batteries to his inverter to store energy to help him cope with power failures.

The 241-pound turbine is available to buy through energy dealers and some hardware shops (it costs $6,499.99 from Ace Hardware. Here you can get the non-grid tied smart box that goes with it). WindTronics expects to have at least 100 wind turbines in operation in Michigan by the end of the year.

WindTronics’ sales are benefiting from a federal tax credit worth of 30 per cent of the cost, including installation. The tax is available until the end of 2016.

Criticism

Not everyone thinks small wind turbines are a good idea, though. The article also quotes Trudy Forsyth from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which considers the unit expensive for the small amount of electricity it generates.

She also highlights that her organization does not endorse rooftop turbines because when wind speed is reduced, turbulence is intensified. Besides, pieces could fall onto the ground, which is a cause for safety concerns.

What do you think? Do small wind turbines have a role to play in energy generation?

Watch WindTronics being featured on MSN’s Today:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• Growth in U.S. Small Wind Projects
• Solar Thermal: More Efficient, Less Talked About
• Energy Harvesting at Small Scale
• Small Scale Wind Power: It’s Beautiful, But Not Everyone is Convinced
• Interest in Small Wind Energy Grows