Green Wavelength unveils bumblebee inspired wind turbine

Description

Vertical axis windmills have been with us in one form or another for more than 1000 years. Designs have undergone constant improvement (including more examples of biomimicry using the whale as inspiration), but the efficiency of current wind turbines peaks at around 30%. To be fair, Betz's law, says that it's not theoretically possible to capture more than 59.3 percent of the kinetic energy in wind, but there is still some room for improvement.

Green Wavelength's 19-foot, aluminum and carbon fiber prototype known as XBee was unveiled last month at the Perfect Pitch 2009 entrepreneur conference in California. It can be mounted both vertically and horizontally and the blades move in a figure eight motion.

It's not yet clear what level of improvement Green Wavelength's radical departure from the norm will bring, with data yet to be published on its effectiveness.

Original URL

http://www.gizmag.com/xbee-wind-turbine-green-wavelength/13279/

http://www.gizmag.com/xbee-wind-turbine-green-wavelength/13279/