From Motor City to Maker City: The ‘Model T’ of wind energy

You would think that the prospect of new wind turbines coming to your community would be welcomed as more and more people are realizing that we are living in the age of peak oil. But when the community response to such investment is "it scares the living hell out of us", you know that there are some serious drawbacks inherent with wind turbine technology.

For 700 years, the only way to harness the power of wind was through spinning blades and turbines. But now there is another way to harness the wind - a way that's modular, scalable, efficient and without any moving parts.

Agents, please let me introduce you to the work of Accio Energy. From their website:


A YouTube video of the 10-minute of the founder's TEDx Detroit speech,
includes a visual sketch of what the
wind energy device will look like around the 5:20 mark.

Some other details about their work, as covered by AnnArbor.com:

• the device, which wouldn't use any moving parts or generate noise, uses the wind to separate electrical charges on thin engineered tubes and create electricity
• it should generate electricity at twice the rate per square meter of solar panels
• “You could put one on the roof or you could put a million in the Mojave Desert. It’s the same fundamental technology"
  
• the device, which could be molded into a variety of shapes, could generate 1 kilowatt of electricity per hour using 640 inches of engineered tube. That would be enough to provide about 20 percent of a
  typical home's power for a year, according to various energy
  organizations. White said it might be possible to manufacturing the
  tubes at existing Michigan facilities for 1 cent per inch
• “You can kind of look at this like being the ‘Model T’ of wind energy. We can apply automotive mass production manufacturing
  ideas to creating non-turbine wind energy and do it using technology we
  have here in our place at low cost.”

And, in this quite telling statement:

“Putting this technology in close proximity to the population who are concerned with issues associated with traditional turbines is a very attractive market”

Incidentally, Accio is the summoning charm in the Harry Potter universe.

I hope Accio brings its magic to the manufacturing base of Detroit and to the rest of the world.