Gizmodo: wind turbine

Helicopters Used to Fix Giant Wind Turbines

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:52:00 EST

If you ever wondered how they get up there to fix those giant wind turbines, here's the answer: Helicopters. And absofreakingnuttely crazylala mechanics. Updated with crazy video.

That's an Eurocopter EC135, which is being used by Bond Air Services to do windmill farm maintenance in the United Kingdom. I'm sure they stop the windmill before going up-unless the stop mechanism is the thing that is broken-but looking a the scale of that little man going down, it's quite scary anyway.

And here I was, thinking they had elevators or really long stairs inside.

Update: As you can see in the crazy video, the reason is that these wind turbines are in the middle of the sea. [Flight Global-video thanks to GitEmSteveDave]

6.5-foot Nendo Kazadokei Is Son of Clock and Wind Turbine

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:24:11 EDT

Standing 6.5 feet tall, the Nendo Kazadokei is a clock with a second hand that measures almost 5 feet on its own. It just stands there, quietly moving its arms, waiting patiently to sever any innocent passerby's head or scoop out an eye from their skull. See it standing up in all its majesty after the jump.

The Kazadokei is made by One Percent products, so only 100 units will be produced at probably some insane price. [Dezeen]

50% of UK Power Soon Coming from Wind?

Mark Wilson — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:26:14 EST

This week UK energy secretary John Hutton will announce a plan to build enough wind turbines to power nearly half of the UK, with sites along the North Sea, Irish Sea and the coast of Scotland, all by the year 2020. The goal? Produce 33GW worth of electricity (or about 30 times that of some prototype DeLoreans we've seen).

The plan would call for massive wind turbines that would reach 850ft in the air to grab the good stuff so each of these generators could produce enough power for 8,000 homes.

Of course, an 850ft turbine is quite visible. And it means that the UK coastline may lose its scenic beauty. There's really no way to have your eco cake and eat it to. That's why we use hamster wheel generators for everything in the Wilson household. You get renewable energy and cuddly friends/an emergency food supply. [timesonline][image]

HY Mini, the Portable Wind and Solar Power Generator

Charlie White — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:55:55 EDT

When you think of wind power, your mind may wander to those old Dutch windmills, wooden shoes, a finger in the dam and all the pot you can smoke. But the oddly named HY Mini does the wind power thing on a much smaller scale. It gets its cherry popped by both wind and sun, gathering energy with either its tiny turbine or mini solar panels.

The premise for this palm-sized device has you holding it in your hand, mounting it to a car window or attaching it to your bike's handlebars, and then it generates power from the sun and wind, storing that energy in its on-board batteries. Then you can use it to charge up your cellphone or portable media player. It also charges up by plugging it into an AC outlet. No pricing was announced yet, but it'll be available later this month. [HY Mini, via Keetsa]

Get Off the Grid: Air-X Personal Wind Turbine

Charlie White — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:31:57 EST

If you're longing to get yourself off the grid, the Air-X is a personal wind turbine that gives you 400 watts of power when the wind is blowing at 28mph. When it s not, you can use batteries, and Air-X helps out there, too, with its charge controller that s smart enough to figure out when batteries need charging and when enough is enough.

A common complaint with wind turbines is the whining noise they make, and the Air-X is modified to reduce that racket. Its carbon fiber composite blades slow down automatically if the wind is blowing too hard. The 46-inch turbine sells for $499.

Product page [via Treehugger]