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.
