A California CEO is bringing his product across the nation this week to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in an effort to win New England’s support for his product, the WindWing. Gene Kelley, founder and CEO of W2 Energy Development Corp., told the Newburyport Daily News that his WindWing uses airplane technology to produce wind power more efficiently, cheaply, and quietly than traditional turbines. The drive for more efficient, power-capturing wind turbine designs is constant. "I looked at propeller-driven wind turbines and said, 'Isn't there a better way to do this?'" Kelley told reporters.
The Daily News describes the WindWing in detail:
A large parallelogram that resembles a set of oversized venetian blinds on a metal rod, WindWing has six wing panels that can tilt up and down in order to create energy. Sensors located behind the panels are able to detect wind direction and strength and adjust the panels accordingly.
The energy is pulled into the stem on the machine and pulled into a box at its base, where it can be converted by an electrical pump into electricity, compressed air or put through a water pump.
"Have you ever stuck your hand out a car window?" Kelley asked. "Then you know how the WindWing works. Your hand tilts up as it is pushed up by the wind and down as the wind pushes it down; all you have to do is direct it."
Kelley says that traditional turbine propellers capture only a fraction of the energy that could be harnessed from wind, namely because their surface area isn’t large enough to capture and convert very much wind. WindWing can run efficiently in any type of weather.
