More wind in the sails of vertical turbines

This week's Windpower show in Dallas looks to host several kinds of wind turbines that depart from the traditional horizontal axis design. At least one company will show a design that eliminates the traditional gearbox and tower-mounted generator with a hydraulic unit and base-mounted generator. (The layout typical of the hydraulic approach can be found here: http://machinedesign.com/article/hydraulic-wind-turbines-0420 )

It also looks as though vertical wind turbines are getting more attention. One design in this camp comes from Urban Green Energy. Its eddy turbine resembles a modern art sculpture and boasts a low start-up speed and a maximum safe wind speed of more than 120 mph. UGE has manufactured 600 W, 1 kW and 4 kW vertical axis wind turbines.

Urban Green Energy and its wind turbines can be found here: www.urbangreenenergy.com.