This category is a catchall for all those contraptions that burst on the scene in a blaze of media hype as different from those "other" wind turbines only to eventually disappear. It's not possible to critique every "invention" that plagues the field of wind energy so only those that have piqued my curiosity, or are particularly egregious, are listed here.
On 26 June 2019 the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer reported that James Allen Rowan of Mag-Wind fame appeared in federal court in an orange jump suit to stand trial for fraud.[more]
As a subscriber to the Guardian newspaper I nearly choked on my coffee at 4.30 in the morning last week while I was scrolling through my news feed. I stumbled on Bladeless turbines could bring wind...[more]
This week, a 13-year experiment in harnessing wind power using kites and modified gliders finally closes down for good.
Vaughn Nelson has pulled together some links to web pages that display either humanity's incredible ingenuity relative to wind energy, or humanity's folly, depending upon your point of view.[more]
In another blast from the past, Vaughn Nelson has tracked down a promotional film (now on youtube) from August 1985 of the Windjammer IV sail wing wind turbine. Patterned after Cretan sail windmills,...[more]
In the research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson has been dredging up some amazing videos. (See Hywind Scotland Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Video.) [more]
Is the end near for SheerWind’s Invelox ducted wind turbine? The problems with SheerWind’s design are coming to a head as its signature clients lose faith.[more]
FloDesign’s prototype ducted wind turbine on Deer Island in Boston Harbor is being removed, according the agency that operates the nearby sewage treatment plant.[more]
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes in a new report that rooftop-mounted and building-integrated wind turbines are a failure, though readers would be hard pressed to find that...[more]
Makani Airborne Wind Energy Turbine (AWT) hasn't been in the news lately. They arrived in a flurry of press in 2013 as the next big thing from Google. The device is a powered kite tethered to the...[more]
Turns out, the wind tree is actually worse than initially thought.
Former employees of the erstwhile ducted turbine manufacturer Ogin have posted comments about their jobs on a public web site.[more]
More photos of the Ogin ducted wind turbine dismantlement have been “thrown over my transom.” These close-up photos show far more detail of the disassembly and scrapping process than before.[more]
I am writing this now to close the book on this sad little turbine and the whole “let’s put them on the roof” phenomenon. Stumbling across an obscure NREL field test report from long ago (see Power...[more]
Ogin, the Massachusetts-based ducted turbine company, has installed six of seven turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, California.[more]
In sum, another story of ill-advised “development” of a revolutionary Darrieus wind turbine with all the attendant hubris and hype. The sad saga cost the government of Quebec $350,000—money that...[more]
What the photos clearly show is that the prototype has abandoned the lobed mixer-ejector feature that was the hallmark of the design—and the justification for the hype that this turbine would be the...[more]
Fad wind turbines do double duty for anti-renewable energy activists: they perpetuate false negative stereotypes of wind power, and then fail to deliver substantial quantities of clean, cheap power.
Yes, folks like me who work in the industry typically dismiss these ideas out of hand. We internalize a lot of processes and out comes, “nope, not going to happen.”[more]
After years of writing about turbines that never came on to the market, and some where the promoters went to jail, and a whole lot of reading, I decided that perhaps this is one of those green gizmo...
While it’s great that innovators are still evaluating different ways to produce clean power, don’t lose sight of how amazing the more mainstream technologies already are: Electricity from the air and...
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. It is provided here in the public interest because of recent controversy surrounding FloDesign and...[more]
This summary reflects my view at the time. Key participants were acknowledging the technical failure of Vortec 7, but they couched their failure in arcane technical language at arcane conferences. [more]
I am an advocate of the rapid development of massive amounts of renewable energy. I don’t see kites in that anytime soon. . .[more]
Sky Windpower’s proposed high-altitude wind generation solution raises major concerns. . .
Makani has a long way to go before operation of an offshore wind farm of these devices is shown to be cheaper per unit of electricity than an equivalent HAWT farm. . . And they still have to get...
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that on October 18, 2013, a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina returned a two-count indictment charging JAMES ALAN ROWAN with securities...[more]
I haven’t paid much attention to Makani, just as I haven’t paid much attention to other kite designs. And yes, there are quite a few “kite wind turbines” besides Makani, either in the press, under...[more]
Updated with a photo of the 18 Venger V2 Savonius turbines on the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[more]
How do specific new wind energy innovations and products stack up? This post looks at nine technologies and companies that have been in the press recently and assesses whether they are good bets or...
This relatively new entrant scores an amazing nine out of thirteen red flags, yet recently was shortlisted for an African Innovation Award, and managed to convince TED to put them on stage in 2012.
The EWICON concept is a neat bit of research, but rates five red flags as a practical technology. Published research puts its net efficiency below that of Savonius wind turbines, which are the worst...
The wind industry isn’t going to be disrupted by someone with an idea and a Powerpoint pitch. If someone is approaching you with a great investment opportunity based on a ‘new’ wind generation...
Here we go again. Another windmill invention is stalking the Internet. This time it is the “bladeless” windmill, reintroduced. Atlantic Cities first published a glowing piece (Invention of the Day:...[more]
A series of wind turbines planned for the city of Jonestown is on hold after criminal charges were filed against one of the designers. . . Charlie Malouff, the founder of the C.M Energies, has been...
But so far, we've seen only a fraction of the total power that WindTronics says we should for our area, even after several visits from a company-authorized installer. At that rate, the Honeywell...
Mag-Wind is back. Grab your children. Bar the door. The dead walk. . . Worse Ed Begley and Jay Leno, those omnipresent endorsers of all things "green", have leapt to the aid of the undead. Their...[more]
Scams, Frauds, & Flakes--Tell-Tale Signs[more]
I've been putting off writing anything about the "Energy Ball" simply because there are too many of these "inventions" for one person to track, analyze, and report on. Like many of these...[more]
Specifically to inventors of vertical axis wind turbines and rooftop wind 'technology breakthroughs'
The pyramids have always been thought to contain some magical power. Maybe they do. Maybe Mag-Wind has found a way to tap into this magical power, because they certainly are not going to get much...[more]
Your claims cannot be substantiated by the data made available to the public and it is likely they cannot be verified in the field. [more]
by Paul Gipe October, 2002 in a posting to awea-wind-home news group. Mike is Michael Klemen, Bos is Ken Bosley. Mike, Am I missing something? I haven't followed this closely and I may have missed...[more]
"We're not a very sophisticated company," Bob Green says humbly. Others agree. The awea-wind-home web site is buzzing with questions about the audacious claims of Green and his company, Thermodyne...[more]
AS WIND turbine generator Vortec Energy gets ready for a 10-city roadshow: to promote its $10m public offering an overseas expert has warned small investors to steer clear, saying the company's...[more]
