DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

The design recently won approval from the Norwegian state-owned energy company, Equinor, which will offer support for its development through its technology accelerator program.

The bladeless turbines are 3 meters high, a curved cylinder attached vertically with an elastic rod. To the untrained eye, it appears to swing back and forth, like a car dashboard toy. In reality, it is designed to oscillate with the wind and generate electricity from the vibration.

They are suitable for urban and residential areas, where the impact of a wind farm would be too great and the space to build it too small.

The turbine poses no danger to birds or wildlife, especially when used in urban environments. For people living or working nearby, the turbine will generate noise at a frequency virtually undetectable to humans.

Not the only startup hoping to reinvent wind power
Alpha 311, which started in a garden shed in Whitstable, Kent, has begun manufacturing a small vertical wind turbine that it claims can generate electricity without wind.

The 2-meter turbine, made from recycled plastic, is designed to attach to existing streetlights and generate electricity as passing cars displace air. An independent study commissioned by the company has revealed that each turbine installed next to a highway could generate as much electricity as 20 square meters of solar panels - more than enough electricity to keep streetlights lit and help power the local energy grid.

A smaller version of the turbine, less than a meter in size, will be installed at London's O2 Arena, where it will help generate clean electricity for the 9 million people who visit the entertainment venue in a typical year.
Perhaps the most ambitious innovation over the standard wind turbine comes from German company SkySails, which hopes to use an aerial design to harness wind power directly from the sky.

SkySails manufactures large, fully automated kites designed to fly 400 meters high and harness the energy of high-altitude winds. During its ascent, the kite pulls on a cable attached to a winch and a generator on the ground. The kite generates electricity as it rises into the sky and, once fully uncoiled, uses only a fraction of the electricity generated to pull the winch back to the ground.

At present, it can generate a maximum capacity of 100 to 200 kilowatts, but a new partnership with German energy company RWE could increase the potential output from kilowatts to megawatts. An RWE spokesman said they are looking for the ideal location for kite flying in Germany.