Generating electricity by harnessing the power of the wind in the most stylish possible way, here’s another rooftop wind turbine that offers a cost effective energy source for domestic, community and industrial use.

Designed by Cascade Engineering to be environmentally  sustainable, the Swift Wind Turbine uses a variety of patented technologies that makes it both safe and silent, and has a very sleek aspect. As for how effective it is, in just four years it becomes carbon and energy positive.

Aesthetically pleasing, the wind turbine is suited for both urban and suburban settings, and features a system that makes it easy to install and operate for every user. Here are more specs about it:

• Blade/Ring Diameter: 7 feet
• Minimum clearance from roofline: 2 feet
• Rated power output: 1.5kW @ 14 m/s
• Annual Power Supplied: up to 2000 kWh
• Electric power: 240VAC, 60Hz output voltage
• Noise: less than 35 decibels for all wind speeds
• Quiet mast mounting technology eliminates unwanted vibration to building/home

[SWT via DesignBoom]

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The small Japanese town of Kuzumaki (coo-zoo-mah-key), not to be confused with uzumaki (whirlpool) has just 8,000 residents that are showing the rest of the world how things might be done … that is, kicking the fossil fuel habit.

How green are they?

1. Electricity is generated from cow dung.
2. Dozens of wind turbines decorate nearby Mt. Kamisodegawa (kah-mee-so-de ‘like in dead’-gah-wah)
3. 25% of schools get power from 420 solar panels
4. biomass facilities
5. wood chips converted to gas

(more…)

The Windspire vertical wind turbine by Mariah Power is a noiseless way of powering your own home for cheap in a sustainable way. Using wind power to spin, this 29.5-foot-tall vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) it outputs 1.2 kW, will cost you some $5,000 and is able to provide 25-30% of the power needed in a typical house. Looking quite attractive it also packs a Wi-Fi transmitter so that you can monitor it online using your own computer. Count the 30% government rebate to the whole thing and you’ll end up with quite a deal.

Meanwhile Mariah Power is working on a larger 3 kW Windspire that – they say – will supply most of your house needs. – via Dvice

India-based Suzlon Energy Ltd – the largest wind turbine manufacturer in Asia, announced on Friday that one of their wind turbine blades in the US, suffered an extremely rare and unusual incident, accidental breakage.

Suzlon windmill farm at Chitradurga

We’re talking about a “single V2 blade on a Suzlon S.88 turbine”, while the rest are still operating without interruptions, running safely as planned. They are now trying to figure out what might have caused the breakage and what might have been the circumstances.

Meanwhile, based on speculations that the Indian company may lose their contracts in the US due to these incidents, Suzlon shares have plunged 29 percent to 55.20 rupees in a Mumbai market that was down nearly 10 percent.

Suzlon Energy has 13,000 employees and in 2008 they had $2.8 billion in revenue. – via IndiaInfoline

Image courtesy of dinesh-valke

The north-east of England is soon to become the centre of an enormous wind farm industry that is being proposed to be set up because of its close proximity to the sea. Today with 3GW (a supply enough for 2m homes) of the 75GW of electricity consumed, Britain has come up to the fifth position, leaving behind Denmark in the European green league.

By the next decade 40GW of electric power will come from off-shore wind farms with a clear 50% of it coming from the British shores. Apart from this, the booming wind farm industry would attract over £50 billion in investments, provide 50,000 jobs and by the year 2010 earn UK 50% of the shares in the European market.

The British Wind Energy Authority (BWEA) is quite confident that it will be able to reach its target by 2020 but the only obstacle in their path to success is the delay on the part of the Government in sanctioning their plans. Isn’t that what Governments are for? – via Telegraph.co.uk

Image courtesy of CovLtwt

The Ethiopian Electricity Corporation realized that they were falling short on energy resources and needed to add some extra sources to meet the demand. But instead of following the conventional method of installing huge power plants, they decided to build a wind farm instead.

Built in north Ethiopia this 120 megawatt Ashegoba wind farm would generate 15% of the nation’s power sources, and the largest of them all, in Africa.

Until recently Ethiopia had depended on its hydroelectric power generated by dams, but severe droughts have totally halted the country’s power resources to a standstill. However with this new project which shows to be a promising one this dire crisis will be resolved.

The project will cost 220 million euros and will take two and a half years to complete. Africa’s resolution to enter the green revolution will secure a brighter future for generations to come.

Press release

Tokyo has its eyes on weaning electric, gas, and petroleum companies from fossil fuels. The Japanese government will require the big users to utilize certain amounts of nonfossil fuels – solar, hydraulic and nuclear power.

The goal is for the proportion of nonfossil fuels to be 30% of the total energy supplies in Japan by 2030. It was 18% in 2005. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will overhaul a 30 year old law to promote the development and use of nonpetroleum fuels.

Japan wants to:

1. stop relying on foreign oil

2. fight global warming

3. and to reduce dependence on natural gas, coal and other greenhouse gas generators.

Energy companies already are required to use solar and wind power. Under the new law, nuclear power will be a requirement as well. Which country will be the next to follow suit?

This story reminds me of the Chinese dude who was able to make a solar water heater for his mother-in-law out of beer bottles. A fellow in London spent all of his $37 to make a wind turbine. He used:

1. a bike frame and bearings,
2. a Vespa magneto
3. a Ford Fiesta battery

all found in a dumpster or in the skips if you are a Londoner.

The DIY wind turbine is not extremely powerful, just 11.3 watts, but at the same time the money spent are little. The creator, Max, wants developing countries to know they can build turbines, too, because he thinks they can build it for even lower.

I have a better idea. Since we in the developed countries have more junk, why don’t we use junk to make turbines and give the good stuff to the less developed countries? How about that for an idea? Secondly, can you imagine lots of car batteries in dumpsters, in a developing country? I don’t!

Why is it that the two-thirds of the world always has to make do while those of us in the, um, richer countries get to create more and more scrap? Something is wrong with this picture, no?

Vestas Wind Systems, the largest wind turbines manufacturer is going to test the world’s longest turbine blade of all times.

They’re going to do it soon, on the Island of Wight in the UK where they will build a research and development center that will play along with an existing Vestas plant which produced turbine blades since 2000.

Though they revealed plans (pdf link), the company failed to mention how long the blades are going to be. Things are clear though. It’s going to be longer than 44 meters which is what Vesta V-90 measures.

The new facility will start producing wind turbine blades starting with 2010.

via CleanTechnica

Image courtesy of kedziers

Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost main island. The island recently hosted the G-8 Summit at Lake Toya. I know the place, got a speeding ticket there once, which, btw, has nothing to do with this post.

The Wakkanai Alternative and Renewable Energy Study Group and Heiren Energy Inc. are jointly testing a system that will store hydrogen that was produced through electrolysis of water.  Wakkanai sits to the extreme north of Hokkaido. What’s different is that the electricity used to run the project is coming from wind turbines that have been installed in the area. Confusion starts – “The hydrogen will be reacted with toluene to produce an organic hydride, allowing it to be stored in a liquid state at room temperature and ambient pressure, then transported safely by tank truck.”

There’s an energy summit that is going to take place in Hokkaido next week July 25-28 in Sapporo, the capital of the island. Hydrogen made from the wind turbine/electrolysis will be used to power an automobile that will be demonstrated at the summit.

Wind + hydrogen = cars on the move. Good Earth-friendly equation. No?

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