Seen a VAWT before?

It's likely you've seen a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine before. Looks something like the propellers on some aircraft. If you've seen any of the wind farms in the Midwest or West, then you know what I'm talking about. That three blade style of wind generator is the most commonly used style in commercial wind generation in the states. One reason for it's popularity is simply that it's well tested and works. However, it is not the only practical design. Take a look at this clip.

That's a VAWT, a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. I haven't done any number crunching to see if the numbers really support that these are more efficient than the HAWT designs, but they certainly look neat. I should add that there are two primary styles of VAWTs, ones based on air resistance, and ones based on lift. The lift types (as shown in the top of the last picture) are made of much smaller fins and operate most efficiently at higher wind speeds. The lower VAWT shown in the picture is based on air resistance. Air resistance models operate at both low wind speeds and high wind speeds, but the lift models out preform them in high wind speeds.

This topic only came up because my family and neighbors are discussing putting up a joint wind turbine. A couple models from different companies have been discussed, but no final decisions have been made. What we do agree on is that we want to tie the turbine into the grid to reduce the about of non-renewable energy we use. My neighbor has a propane powered generator that is powerful enough to power both houses in times that that the grid is down. At any rate, the cost and labor for the turbine and generator will be shared, as appropriate.

Back on subject, I've found a couple companies that produce aesthetically pleasing models that would suite our needs. We had been discussing HAWTs in the range of 800 to 1000 watts. It's nice that the VAWTs I found can greatly exceed that without being significantly larger. Ok, here's the link: PacWind. The other one I like appears to be very similar in design and output to some of PacWind's models, though I haven't studied it thoroughly. Take a look for yourself: Windspire.

Lot more research to do, but my goal at the moment is to bring some alternatives to the traditional to the table. I honestly think that some of these would greatly out-preform the HAWTs we've discussed. Cost is one thing I've not seen, partly because they haven't been listed. We've got a long way to go before anything tangible comes out of this, but any way it happens it will be better than nothing.

That's enough for now I think. Next update coming sometime, I think. Haha, have a great time 'till then!