We've covered plenty of wind turbines over the years, but most tend to be awfully conceptual or rather unsuited to consumer applications. Being eco-geeks at heart we're happy to report on a new one that is both consumer-friendly and in production now. Mariah Power's Windspire is a 9 meter tall vertical turbine intended for residential or commercial installation, capable of providing about a quarter of the power an "average" household needs (2000 kWh annually). It's "bird-friendly" thanks to a relatively slow maximum blade speed (2.5 times that of the wind) and even includes WiFi so you can watch your carbon footprint shrink wirelessly. The company is accepting orders now, and while prices aren't listed on the website (you'll need to request a quote), we hear you can get yourself into a 2009 model with a 5 year unlimited rotation warranty for around $5,000 -- plus customization if you want one in something other than "Soft Silver." We'll take ours in magenta, thanks.

[Via Digg]

Still addicted to oil like the rest of the world? You might reconsider wind power rehab now that a startup called ExRo has developed turbines that it says are consistently 30% -- and in some situations as much as 100% -- more efficient than the standard kind. The traditionally-used mechanical transmissions have been replaced with an inexpensive electric alternative that can adapt to changes in wind speed more efficiently. Also, many small generators are used instead of a large one, so the turbines can be customized in production to suit the intended installation site. If this is the real deal, it beats the 0.1% increase we saw in solar cell efficiency a few months ago, and those Maglev uber-turbines are still on the horizon. Hey Sun -- jealous yet?

[Via DailyTech]

As much as we prefer a good old-fashioned bird-killin' three blade wind turbine, apparently they cause a bit too much vibration and disturbance for regular home use. That's where the Energy Ball comes in, with its spherical shape that captures wind less obtrusively and yet more efficiently. At least that's what we're told, we're a bit short on details. We do know that it's in the prototype stages and was designed by Swedish company Home Energy, who claims their smallest Energy Ball can provide about 15% of the necessary energy to power the average Swedish home.

[Via Inhabitat]

Ever walk through Times Square and wonder how much electricity all those flashy billboards are soaking up? No? Well, Ricoh has, and now they're doing something about it. Ricoh Company Ltd. of Tokyo is erecting a 47 x 126-foot billboard at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street that will be completely powered by the sun and wind. Fueled by 45 solar panels and four wind turbines, the billboard won't even need a backup electric generator. On days that the sun and wind aren't enough to power it, it will simply go dark. In the end, the billboard is said to reduce carbon dioxide usage by 18 tons a year. The billboard will go live in December, or just in time for the sun to go dark.

As wind energy becomes a practical necessity, designers are scrambling to make the giant spinny things as visually inoffensive as possible. Some are small, some are off in the sea where we can't be bothered, and some just look really pretty. In this case, Broadstar AeroCam developed this handsome horizontal-axis turbine that can be installed in any number of configurations and shipped easier than other turbines, making it a viable solution for those who don't want to erect a giant pole or get involved in construction. AeroCams work on the physics of air lift -- like wings on a plane -- resulting in a huge amount of power from a small package given the amount of blades per unit. Broadstar also brags that the system's price is a boon as well -- a 250kW system runs $250,000, which it says makes AeroCam the first wind power system to break the $1/watt cost barrier.

[Via Inhabitat]

We've seem some impressive wind power tech, but a new breed of small, high-power wind turbines could potentially bring efficient wind power home. Developed by an inventor named Doug Selsam, the new turbines have rotors just 14-18 inches in diameter, but can produce 200 watts in a 20MPH wind, and much more than that at higher wind speeds. The trick is using high-strength carbon-fiber materials that allow several rotors to be hooked up as one -- in strong winds a thirteen-rotor system can produce enough juice to blow out a bank of car headlights "like flashbulbs." That's pretty impressive -- especially since the system is light and balanced enough to be held up with one hand. No word on when or how we might see these hit the public, but we can see some pretty sweet applications -- laptops in the park, anyone?

[Thanks, Yocheved]

We've already seen some wind turbines designed to float offshore, but Canadian startup Magenn Power has some ideas of its own for getting wind power off the ground and, judging by its latest tests, it seems to be making some considerable progress. Its solution, dubbed the Magenn Air Rotor System (or MARS), is designed to float between 600 and 1,000 feet above the ground, and spin on the horizontal axis to generate electricity, giving it a power capacity of anywhere from 10 kilowatts to several megawatts depending on the configuration. While they've apparently yet to extract any juice from it, the company has at least recently gotten a prototype off the ground at a massive airship testing facility in North Carolina, and it has apparently now set its sights on an outdoor test, although there's no word as to when that might go down. What's more, as Greentech Media reports, while the company apparently plans to first market a 100 kilowatt version for industrial use, it also hopes to eventually enter the consumer market with smaller models that people "can take camping or use at their cottage," although it admits that prospect has been put on the backburner for now.

[Via Protein]

You know how we love wind turbines around here, but we love carnage even more -- so we can't get enough of this 200-foot tall Danish wind turbine shearing itself to bits after its brakes failed during a recent storm. The 10-year old windmill is the one of two different Vestas windmills to fail in Denmark in the past week -- the company is launching an investigation, but might we suggest selling tickets instead?

[Via BoingBoing]

We've seen a couple innovative wind power solutions pop up, but none that claim to offer the benefits of maglev wind turbines, which use full-permanent magnets to nearly eliminate friction by "floating" the blades above the base. According to developers, the technology is capable of scaling to massive sizes, with a proposed $53M turbine able enough to replace 1000 traditional windmills and power 750 thousand homes. Additional benefits include the ability to generate power with winds as slow as three miles per hour, operational costs some 50 percent cheaper than windmills, and an estimated lifespan of 500 years. That all sounds great, but the real proof will come when these things get put to use, which may happen sooner than you'd think: Development is proceeding rapidly in both the US and China, with Chinese power company Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology currently building a $5M factory to produce the turbines in capacities from 400 to 5,000 watts.

While the message of living a greener life seems to be pounded into our ears on a regular basis, it's never too early to get your offspring in on the energy-conserving fun. The Blow Light toy from Nigel's Eco Store features a simplistic, kid-friendly design that's sure to require a lot of attention, as the miniature pinwheel doesn't light up and excite without a little effort on your youngster's behalf. The internal blue and green LED lights remain dormant until a gust of wind (or hot air) starts the spinning, subsequently lighting up the device and eliciting smiles all around. Of course, with no batteries required, the price on this uber-green toy tends to be a bit higher than the mass market alternatives, but at least your £9.99 ($20) won't be fueling the proverbial fire.

[Via Inhabitat]

It's not just the fitness club types in Hong Kong attempting to generate a bit of renewable energy, inventor Lucien Gambarota -- the very man responsible for converting all that cardio into voltage -- is showing off some micro-wind turbines for even more power bill relief. There's currently only a single wind turbine on a small outer island providing energy to Hong Kong, the rest of the city just doesn't get enough wind for traditional turbines to do any good. Not so with Gambarota's new micro-turbines, which can generate electricity with as little as 2 mph of wind, and keep turning at all times from the slightest of breezes. The little windmills are actually gearwheels, mounted in a array. They can be arranged in different shapes and sizes, from two to thousands of square meters. The energy is put into a battery, which then powers appliances in the building. Currently the micro-turbines go for about $25 for a set of 20 gearwheels, but that price should drop considerably once they begin to be mass produced.

[Thanks, nvyseal]

If you ask a person on the street what they think about wind turbines in general terms then the reaction will in most cases be favorable. Ask what they think if someone was about to place wind turbines within direct sight of their home, and the response probably won't be one of glee. Common concerns often include the whooshing sound that regular turbines produce, as well as their divisive visual aesthetics -- some love it, some loath it. A new type of wind turbine intended to address both of these issues is Quiet Revolution's QR5 Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, or VAWT for shawt. The QR5 is smaller, quieter, and way better looking than your typical windmill, plus it should produce the equivalent of its £25,000 price tag in clean energy within 15 years or less. We're down with the futuristic design and the company's noble aims, but we feel that the QR guys should spice up the name of this particular turbine. Our suggestion? Pigeon Dicer, Mark 5.

Thanks to MIT's Paul D. Sclavounos, we might get a reprieve from the eyesore problem of windmills, while still sticking with their clean-and-cheap energy benefits. Unfortunately, hapless birds aren't going to get much of a respite. The plan is to plant these things offshore, far enough out into the water for the skinny white turbines to disappear on the horizon, but we're sure a few seagulls will be able to find those "invisible" blades all the same. The turbines can be anchored in water up to 650 deep, and can withstand even hurricane-generated waves. Another benefit of the system is the strong and steady wind out at sea, so the 90-meter turbines should be able to generate twice as much electricity in comparison to their near-shore counterparts. Count us in, we never liked seagulls too much anyways.