The fact is that vertical axis wind turbines are constantly evolving and we’re likely to see more of them on top of residences and commercial buildings. They can be placed quite close to the ground, which makes maintenance easy. They operate well in different wind conditions and they make little noise.
Still, some people say the more common horizontal turbines are better and that small wind power generation is “uneconomicalâ€. Horizontal turbines are definitely more widely adopted and their rate of efficiency is higher (35 per cent against 30 percent for vertical turbines).
The jury is out and the answer is, literally, blowing in the wind.
The video below was produced by StranWind, a company producing vertical axis wind turbines and which recently made a presentation at the 6th M.I.T. Energy Conference.
What do you think? Chime in through the comments box.
StranWind is actually a distributor of Urban Green Energy wind turbines. The video at the bottom of is of a UGE-4K vertical axis wind turbine.