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The Windbelt – a Cheap Wind-Power Generator
dominique_cimafranca writes "Shawn Frayne, a 28-year old inventor, has developed a small wind-powered generator that can be used to power small appliances in developing countries. Unlike the typical propeller design one expects of wind generators, the windbelt uses the oscillation of a membrane that follows the vibration of bridge. The oscillation drives small magnets which generate the electricity. From the article: 'Frayne's device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes.'"
dupe: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/14/1240206
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
Yup.
40mW in 10 MPH wind for $5: Scale to 1W would take an array of 25 at a cost of $125.
This would be, looking at his prototype, about 50cm x 100cm...
The cost/watt however, is just astronomically bad. A 1 kW wind turbine is $3000 (which would produce ~400W at that windspeed)...
Its really a clever idea, but just not efficient enough to be economical, even to just glow an LED lamp.
Test your net with Netalyzr
The point of this technology is not to scale up, but to scale down. In the first world, yes, it will be a niche product. However, the idea is to use it in poor areas without electricity in the third world. If it did end up costing $10, then this could provide light very cheaply in places where they need it.
Hrm, please provide references for your "Saving the Third World requires gigawatts" estimate.
Suppose just one watt of electricity per person is all you need to make a huge difference to peoples' lives. One watt per person times 3 gigapeople in poverty = 3 gigawatts.
Your LED light bulb, by the way, is going to draw around a watt. A compact fluorescent, ten times that.
But tell us about your prototype power generator for the 3rd world. If you don't have one,
I don't have one, but I'm not the one getting headlined on Slashdot. However, I will say that if a $5 40-mW power generator could save the world, we'd all have gotten to Happyland in 1980, when we gave every man, woman, and child a pocket-sized solar cell and a D-cell NiCd. Oh right, that didn't happen, because milliwatts per person gets you *nowhere*, even if you could distribute the generators, which you can't.
But I do have a better idea, but it's not for a power generator. Wanna save the developing world? Build them some good roads and rails. China did, and look what happened. Sure, China's no bed of roses, but your average Ghanaian would kill for a Chinese standard of living. No time to go into detail here, but transportation and access to markets is what separates the developing world from the rest.
The main website for the technology is http://www.humdingerwind.com/ Last press release is almost a year old, and the developer kits which are promised on their website for "middle of 2008" are non-existant. Shame.
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