Green Tech

Now you can test whether you're both techno-chic and an ecogeek by combining the iPhone with home wind turbines.

Small wind turbine maker Mariah Power has teamed up with software developer Create with Context to make an iPhone application designed to measure wind speed.

The application, which is due "any day," uses the iPhone's microphone to get a read on wind speed. It translates that into how much power a small wind turbine could offset. For example, a wind that averages 12 miles per hour is enough energy to run your refrigerator and freezer for a year, according to Create with Context.

The iPhone small wind application uses a microphone to get a read on wind speed.

(Credit: Create with Context)

The application was written to get people excited about wind power. But it strikes me that actually buying a turbine based on an iPhone application is a bit risky.

Small wind turbines do indeed work, but experienced wind installers will tell you that they only deliver on their stated performance when there is a sufficient wind. That means placing a turbine far above and away from obstructions, such as trees and rooftops, in addition to getting that 12-mph average wind speed.

Two studies--one in the U.K. and one in Massachusetts--found that early buyers of pole-mounted wind turbines and roof-mounted turbines did not get the electricity output they expected. The primary reason was that the turbines weren't getting enough wind in their locations.

So an iPhone wind speed application could be fun to play with and even give you a decent idea of wind speed. But if you're serious, I'd suggest consulting a wind map from 3Tier or others and gather more data with an anemometer.

There are at least two other iPhone applications for measuring wind speed, called Wind Meter and Wind Speed, the New York Times notes.

Twister 300-T

Twister 1000-T

Vertikon H50

(Credit: Venco)

Helix Wind has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Venco Power, a Germany-based manufacturer of vertical axis small wind turbines, for $3.9 million in cash and common stock, the company announced Thursday.

With Venco comes greater access to the small wind residential market in Europe, along with three new products the company plans to add to its small wind product line, according to Helix Wind CEO Ian Gardner.

While all three models are for the small wind market, each has a distinctive look and different capacities. The Venco Twister 300-T produces power at wind speeds as low as 3.5 meters per second (7.8 mph); it starts rotating at 3.0 meters per second, and its claim to fame is that it's "virtually quiet." The Twister 1000-T makes the same noise and power claims as the 300-T, but has a different look and begins to start rotating at a wind speed of 1.5 meters per second. The Vertikon H50 will begin generating power at speeds as low as 2.5 meters per second.

Venco also has an online calculator (for Java applet-friendly browsers) for estimating how much power one can expect each particular turbine product to generate. Potential customers input average wind speeds for each month of the year at their location, and can change which turbine the figures are applied to.

"We're also excited to bring German engineering talent and technology to the quest for alternative energy," Gardner said in a statement.

The news follows Helix Wind's August announcement offering a unique financial fix for the initial cash outlay that residential customers and dealers face when getting into wind power.

The Helix S322 vertical wind turbine is designed for urban spaces.

(Credit: Helix Wind)

While wind turbines save money on power in the long term, the initial outlay for buying and installing one can be prohibitive to many homeowners even if they live in a state that offers generous rebates.

Helix Wind makes relatively small vertical-axis wind turbines that can generate electricity with winds as low as 10 mph. These small-scale wind turbines are designed for residential and small-business owners looking for microgeneration.

It may be a classic business model that helps potential customers fund this new technology.

Helix Wind has partnered with Atoll Financial Group, a financial services company based in Washington, D.C., to offer loans for its small wind turbines. It's similar to car manufacturers with a financing arm for auto loans or furniture stores that offer financing for a dining room set.

The financing packages offered in conjunction with Atoll will vary by market, country, and type of customer, according to Helix Wind CEO Ian Gardner.

"We conduct an extensive fact-finding process with potential customers to determine the best solution for their particular set of financial and resource conditions," Gardner said in an e-mail.

The plan will also include financing to enable distributors to carry more inventory thereby decreasing the time it takes to meet customer orders, according to Helix Wind.

Because the small wind turbine systems can be configured to for either residential and commercial properties, the systems range widely in price--between $4,500 to $250,000. But the company's Web site does offer some guidelines in terms of initial outlay.

"A 5-kW (kilowatt) grid-connected residential-scale system generally costs ($20,000) to 25,000 to install. The best candidates for these systems are homes and businesses with at least a half acre of property, a Class 3 or better wind resource, and utility bills averaging $150 per month or more," according to Helix Wind.

MUSKEGON, Mich.--Tucked in the back corner of a nondescript office park is an early shoot in the budding green-energy economy--a start-up with big plans for small wind turbines.

Last month, I took a detour from a summer road trip to visit WindTronics and see a prototype of its wind turbine designed for individual homes and commercial buildings. The company's lab, housed in a nearly empty warehouse, is a glimpse into the fervent experimentation going on among green-tech entrepreneurs and, specifically, in small wind.

With people looking for clean and cheaper forms of energy, sales of small wind turbines are brisk and projected to grow in the coming years. There are now dozens of different small wind turbines available in a dizzying number of designs, although most commercial products are just smaller versions of big turbines--a propeller with three blades.

Despite all the activity, there's some creeping doubt about the ultimate potential of small wind. A study in Massachusetts and one in the U.K. found that many residential locations don't have sufficient wind to meet the promised output of small turbines.

In WindTronics' lab, a protoype of the Honeywell Wind Turbine, which is 6 feet tall and weighs 95 pounds.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

WindTronics has designed a turbine that addresses that wind speed issue head on. While most wind turbines start to work when the wind blows at seven or eight miles per hour, its machine--to be sold for $4,500 as the Honeywell Wind Turbine--starts to generate electricity at only two miles per hour. That, say company executives, means small wind can make sense economically in many more locations.

Kilowatts versus kilowatt-hours
Entering WindTronics' lab, there wasn't much to see except for a spartan office and conference room. A design drawing of its wheel-like turbine on the wall gave me a clue I was in the right place. After a moment, the turbine's inventor and chief technical officer, Imad Mahawili, greeted me and brought me into a warehouse.

At the back end of the cavernous room, there was the 6-foot-high turbine, a table with some testing equipment, and a truck trailer that had been converted into a low-cost wind tunnel.

WindTronics has designed its turbine, which is now going through certification testing and will be available later this year, to be mounted on rooftops or onto free-standing poles. The most striking thing about seeing the turbine up close is how big it is. At 6 feet high without the mounting gear, it would be a conspicuous addition on a home's roofline, although I imagine less so on a pole.

The turbine is built around a wheel with long spokes, each of which has a specially shaped, bendable nylon blade attached to it. Around the rim of this big wheel is a "shroud" that covers the blade edges. This is where WindTronics' design differs from most other wind machines.

Wind tests on the cheap--a wind tunnel built inside a tractor trailer container.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Most turbines have a gear box at the hub of the rotor. As the wind turns the blades, the gear box turns a generator to make electricity.

WindTronics turns things inside out by having the electricity generation happen at the rim of the turbine. Permanent magnets attached to the blade tips spin past stators--essentially wire coils--attached to the shroud to generate a current. Without the resistance of a gear box at the hub, WindTronics says its turbine will spin--and generate electricity--at low wind speeds, which over the course of time will add up to more power than other turbines, company executives argue.

"The reality is because most turbine makers sell to utilities, they have to specify the maximum power," said Mahawili. "The other companies don't give details on how many kilowatt-hours a turbine will make, just the plate power (in kilowatts), which doesn't signify much. We're really not telling the story as we should."

WindTronics says its turbine will generate 2,000 kilowatt-hours in a year for a home with a very good--called Class 4--wind resource. That's between 15 and 20 percent of the annual electricity consumption for the average U.S. home.

Green collar industry?
Mahawili then cranked up the wind tunnel, which is used to measure the output of the turbine. Rather than pay a lot of money to test its turbines in commercial wind tunnels, it built its own with a giant fan placed at the front of a semi trailer.

As the fan cranked up, we could see on a laptop how much power the test turbine produced at different speeds. With about 10 mile-per-hour wind, it generated about 100 watts and kept climbing upward with higher speeds.

Part of its system for capturing wind power at low speeds is a battery--a standard issue 12-volt car battery--that stores electricity at very low wind speeds. As it speeds up, the turbine can directly feed an inverter to produce household current, Mahawili explained.

When I walked into the wind tunnel itself, there was no noticeable vibration. The fan for the wind tunnel made noise but I couldn't distinguish the sound of the WindTronics test turbine, which the company says will operate very quietly at 35 to 45 decibels.

After the wind tunnel slowed down, WindTronics CEO Reg Adams told me about the company's business plans. It has a partnership with Ace Hardware to distribute the turbine starting this fall. The first units will be manufactured in the Netherlands but the company is looking for factory sites in the U.S.

There are already tax incentives offered from Michigan, a state that's desperately seeking out new manufacturing industries, notably wind. WindTronics was incubated in the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in Muskegon, a city known in the past for its lumber industry.

Although it has the support of government officials plugging for "green-collar jobs," WindTronics has a long way to go before it can claim to be a commercial success. In addition to finalizing its product, it has to develop the distribution channels and ensure enough people are trained to install the turbines.

Also, the small wind category is relatively immature. Although there was a big jump in sales last year, there were only 10,000 units installed, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Even with its ability to spin at low speeds, WindTronics' turbine should be placed in good locations for wind, said president and CEO Reg Adams. Typically, that means well above and away from any obstructions, including trees, in a site with steady wind.

Still, the company's goal is to bring the cost of distributed wind down significantly and get a toehold in this relatively new market. When compared to other turbines or solar panels, the yearly energy output of WindTronics' turbine will compare favorably on price, said Adams. "We want this to be mainstream, not a specialty item," he said.

With politicians pushing adoption of renewable energy in the United States and Europe, the last few years have seen a surge in plans for wind farms--both on land and sea. But wind power isn't viable everywhere--and prime coastal spots are often already developed.

So some wind-turbine makers are shifting their focus toward building bigger wind turbines that can harvest the lower-speed winds that are more readily available. This next generation of wind turbines is no small matter: their rotors have a diameter the size of a football field.

In general, wind turbines get more powerful and efficient with taller turbine towers and larger areas swept by the blades, according to the American Wind Energy Association. A turbine's swept area is a key indicator in how much power output potential the turbine has.

"Lower wind-speed turbines certainly open up more land for development," said Rich Reno, platform leader for General Electric's new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine. "Larger turbines open up the opportunity to get more megawatts out of a given piece of land."

The Siemens SWT-2.3-101 has a maximum power output that's enough to power approximately 700 homes.

(Credit: Siemens)

Finding new sites for wind farms is essential to the sector's growth because many of the places with the most attractive wind conditions tend to be developed already. More efficient turbines also make wind power a more realistic option for countries like Germany, which is not very windy and has relatively limited shoreline, where winds tend to be stronger. Despite those obstacles, the country has the world's second largest installed base of wind power.

Wind farm development continues to push into new regions--particularly in the U.S. and parts of Europe, where politicians are encouraging renewable-energy R&D.

"We see continued growth in Europe, notably because of EU legislation to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources," Victor Abate, vice president for the renewables arm of GE Energy, told Reuters in an interview. The European Union issued a directive in December 2008 to have 20 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2020. Europe contains more than half of the world's installed wind power capacity.

The U.S. is now the country with the world's largest installed base of wind power, according to the World Wind Energy Association. More than 8,300 megawatts of wind power was installed in 2008, expanding the nation's total wind power generating capacity by 50 percent in a single calendar year.

Although that growth is expected to slow in 2009, according to both the AWEA and investment bank HSBC, the wind industry is still getting support stateside. As part of the economic stimulus plan signed in February, President Obama extended tax credits for wind and increased the amount the government will spend on those credits by 30 percent.

Industry watchers predict much of the growth in the wind market will be in the low- to medium-wind segments. And as that trend continues, wind turbines in general have been increasing in size--from typical 18-yard rotors 25 years ago to about 110 yards in recent years. The average wind turbine installed in 2007, with a capacity of 1.6 megawatts, is twice as powerful as the average wind turbine installed in 2000 (0.76 MW), according to AWEA.

Several manufacturers are rolling out new low-speed turbines to help meet that demand. Siemens, Vestas, and Nordex all recently released new, large wind turbines directed at low-wind markets. Last year, General Electric released its largest turbine for low-wind use.

Siemens predicts that the low-wind market alone should represent one-third of the total global wind-power market in the coming years. Its new turbine, the SWT-2.3-101, has a "nominal" (that's maximum in wind-engineering speak) power output of 2,300 kW, enough to power approximately 700 homes, depending on wind conditions. The turbine is enormous, with a 110-yard rotor diameter--larger than an American football field.

A turbine blade convoy passes through Edenfield, U.K., with blades 42 yards long. Nordex's newer low-wind model, the N100, has a 53-yard blade--11 yards longer than the ones pictured. Transportation might prove to be one limit to how big land turbines can get.

(Credit: Paul Anderson)

Designed to harvest weaker winds, SWT-2.3-101 has a swept area of 86,111 square feet, 17 percent larger than Siemens' previous 2,300 kW turbine.

"The new wind turbine will open up many potential new sites for our customers," Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens' Wind Power Business Unit, said in a statement.

Danish wind-power company Vestas recently unveiled its V 112, a 3 MW low-wind turbine the company claims is the world's largest mass-produced wind turbine for low- and medium-wind-speed sites.

The wind turbine has a nominal power output of 3,000 kW, the same as the company's previous largest turbine. But because of its larger blade diameter, it's able to reach that potential with lower speed winds. It can generate electricity at wind speeds as low as 6.7 miles per hour and reach maximum power at about 31 mph. The previous model required 8.9 mph winds to deliver power, and 34 mph to attain maximum output.

Three factors have made it possible to make modern turbines so big, according to General Electric: controlling the load on the grid, new blade design, and new materials to reduce the weight of the turbine.

"As the technology increases in those areas it allows advancement," said Reno, of GE Energy.

New materials and construction techniques make it possible to build even larger wind turbines. Siemens says it uses a proprietary manufacturing process, which casts the 53-yard, fiberglass-reinforced epoxy blades in one piece. The process eliminates weaknesses from gluing parts together, as is done with traditional blades and thus makes it possible to make turbines this size.

Vestas is increasingly using composite materials and has a low-weight-design philosophy. In March, Vestas teamed up with U.S. aerospace company Boeing for projects in areas such as aerodynamics and composite-materials fabrication processes, design, and analysis.

But there are limits to how big these turbines can get. GE says the grid's ability to handle more powerful loads is one limiting factor. And in the future, problems with transportation could limit the size of new land-based turbines. Going around road corners and narrow bridges with 50-yard blades is already a problem, and the only thing that could alleviate that would be technology for making multiple-piece blades. Offshore this transport problem doesn't exist so the turbines could be bigger there. GE thinks the size increase of the turbines will plateau, but that won't happen for a while.

"I think 70 meters (77 yards) was a pretty big rotor 10 years ago. Today 110 is out there," Reno said. "Can they grow another 30 meters (33 yards) in 10 years? I think it is possible."

A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.

• Goals for Ethanol Production Are in Peril - The New York Times
  "The ethanol industry is on its back despite the billions of dollars they have gotten in taxpayer assistance, and a guaranteed market," according to one analyst. And the industry is unlikely to meet government production mandates.
• Saudi Oil Min: Renewables Push Could Create Energy Havoc - Dow Jones
  Saudi oil minister warns of a "nightmare scenario of diminishing energy supplies" if renewable energy is adopted too quickly.
• How Better Place plans to revive the electric car - CNET Australia
  Australia will be one of the first places to have Better Place's automated battery-swapping stations for electric cars. CNET Australia's Car Tech blog gets the lowdown.
• Sequoia Backs Stealthy C12 To Capture Carbon - VentureWire
  Boston-area start-up wants to make underground storage of carbon dioxide--of great interest to utilities--less expensive. Commercialization is years away, though.
• Wind turbine 'broke due to mechanical failure not collision with flying object' - The Daily Telegraph
  So much for the UFO theory.
• Hybrids Powered by Air - Technology Review
  Researchers look for a more efficient way to use stored compressed air to help power a (smaller) motor.
• When Oil Rig Met Wind Turbine - Greentech Media
  To do offshore wind, talk to people who know a bit about offshore oil.
• Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants? - The New York Times
  Guest post by energy maven Amory Lovins, who says that gigantic power plants no longer make sense and that distributed "micropower" is the way to grow.
• Dell Announces Major Expansion of Free Computer Recycling Program - press release
  You can recycle your Dell PC at 1,000 locations in the U.S. now.

Updated on February 6, 2009 with a correction. The original misstated the measurement for the company's technical specifications. It should be 14 meter per second wind, which is 31 miles per hour.

A home wind turbine already installed at 250 sites in Scotland is now being sold across the pond.

Cascade Engineering said Monday the Swift wind turbine, for homes and other buildings, is available in the U.S. and Canada.

(Credit: Cascade Engineering)

The Swift tries to set itself apart from existing small wind turbines with a design that reduces noise. Also, the turbine can be attached to a home, rather than to a free-standing pole or tower.

Like other wind turbines, the Swift has blades that turn and power a generator. But rather than the typical three blades, the Swift has five and a ring that goes around them. That "outer diffuser" ring cuts the noise level to 35 decibels and reduces vibration, according to the company.

The turbine, with a 7-foot diameter, also has two fins to direct the turbine to face the wind. It can turn 360 degrees and shut down if the wind is too high.

It can generate 1.5 kilowatts with 31 mile-per-hour wind (or 14 meters per second) and about 2,000 kilowatt-hours over a year, the company said. U.S. households typically consume between 6,500 and 10,000 kilowatt-hours in a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

At a cost of $10,000 installed, it's a bit lower than the typical per-watt cost of solar electric panels. But state rebates, the cost of electricity, and the wind or solar resource make a big difference on the actual up-front cost. Cascade estimates the payback on the upfront cost can be as low as three years, but that it varies widely.

(Credit: Cascade Engineering)

Small wind recently benefited from the extension of renewable energy tax credits, which gives consumers a $1,000 tax credit for residential systems and $4,000 for commercial buildings.

Cascade, which is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has installed 9 Swift turbines in the U.S. and has a backlog of 25 orders, according to Jessica Lehti, the company's senior product marketing manager.

The mix of customers is spit in half between residential and commercial customers. Even with the economic downturn, the company expects that it can sell to customers who purchase renewable energy products for both economic and environmental reasons.

Cascade, which specializes in plastics, has partnered with the Scotland-based Renewable Devices, which originally designed the Swift. Cascade is selling the product in the U.S.

The company says the turbine is best suited for places with average winds and needs to be placed two feet above the roofline.

Siemens Energy plans to open its first U.S. wind turbine research and development facility in Boulder, Colo.

The energy sector of the German company made the announcement on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, at Windpower 2008, the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference.

The center will concentrate on everything from designing better wind turbine components such as aerodynamic blades to conducting atmospheric-science research.

The strongest wind turbine Siemens currently makes has a capacity of 3.6 megawatts, according to the company. The one being used in Colorado will have a 2.3-megawatt capacity.

(Credit: Siemens)

As part of the plan, Siemens Energy will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to install a Siemens 2.3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center located just outside of Boulder.

"The creation of these green jobs is good for our economy and our communities and will help set us on a path of greater energy independence," Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said in a statement.

The Siemens R&D center, however, will create only about "12 to 15 green-collar positions in the first year," with a total of 50 new jobs in Colorado by 2013, according to Siemens' own estimates. And those jobs may not be what many economic reports predict could supplant lost jobs for blue-collar professionals.

Most of the employees of the new Siemens facility will be "new hires with a Ph.D. or master's degree in the desired disciplines," according to the Siemens announcement.

Siemens already has wind turbine R&D centers in Copenhagen, Denmark; Aachen, Germany; Delft, the Netherlands; and Keele, United Kingdom. The U.S. facility will share gained wind technology knowledge with those facilities.

The announcement follows news that increased costs in materials, coupled with engineering challenges, are hindering Europe's push to use more renewable sources like wind energy by 2020, according to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The wind power business, dominated by international conglomerates deploying mature technology, is a tough nut to crack.

A small Massachusetts-based start-up, FloDesign Wind Turbine, this week won two clean-energy competitions with a "shrouded turbine" design that it says can generate three to four times more electricity than today's hulking wind turbines.

FloDesign Wind Turbine says its "shrouded turbine" is three to four times more productive than traditional blade turbines.

(Credit: FloDesign Wind Turbine)

The company has gotten attention from Al Gore in his role as partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, according to news Web site Xconomy which cited an unnamed source.

FloDesign Wind Turbine CEO Stan Kowalski III, who is traveling in California, was not immediately available to comment on Thursday.

FloDesign Wind Turbine's design draws on its jet engine expertise from parent company, aerospace engineering firm FloDesign.

In a video (embedded below), the company describes its turbine design, which takes a radically different approach than the rotor-based wind turbines that dominate the market now.

FloDesign Wind Turbine's design resemble a jet engine, an approach that allows it to capture much more wind energy while taking up less space than traditional turbines.

When wind hits a turbine, it's constructed so that different air flows create a rapid-mixing vortex. A fin directs it to face the direction of the wind to maximize the amount of energy it receives.

The company said its machines can be used for utility-scale wind farms or corporate customers.

On Monday, the company won a prize valued at more than $100,000 in cash and services from the MIT Enterprise Forum Ignite Clean Energy competition. On Tuesday, it won the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize competition, which had a top prize of $200,000.