QuantumFog

October 11, 2006

Scaling down the spin factor

Guvna' Rick Perry of Texas gets left-wing street cred by cobbling together a consortium to build $10,000,000,000 worth of wind turbines in the state. The group includes Shell Oil. This, in deference to his petroleum empowered Republican constituency.

Repubs are also going environmental with their message, saying every 1,000 megawatts of wind power will cut carbon dioxide pollution by 6 million tons over 20 years.

Ya know, political crossdressing aside, we could've started this about twenty years ago and avoided the whole Middle East thing.

The picture is of a helical turbine, manufactured in Finland for the past 24 years by Windside. This unit has a night light under the solar panel. Birds don't run into these because spinning helical turbines don't disappear like a propeller.

Bill Becker of Aerotecture in Chicago has his version of a helical that can lie horizontal or any whichaway. Cost is under $5,000. Though it doesn't look as spiffy, it's 5'x10' size fits into backyards and apartment rooftops.

The nice thing about these helicals is wind direction and high wind speeds don't matter. They create less noise than propellors.

I like these mini turbines for the same reasons I like "hydrogen on demand" in my garage. It eliminates corporations who enjoy rummaging around in my billfold. And strategically, it spreads the power infrastructure around instead of localizing it in one place.

Need I mention, one of these could power the hydrogen converter or charge car batteries. Free fuel for the cost of squirting a little oil in the turbine bearings.

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