Eolic

I love wind turbines; so elegant, so monumentally disappointing. Take the Eolic folding turbine. It looks very nice and the little bundle it folds into just begs to be tucked under the arm. The only problem is this little equation

P = 0.5 x rho x A x V³

• P = power in watts
• rho = air density
• A = rotor swept area, exposed to the wind
• V = wind speed in meters/sec

That cube function means that for a turbine as small as this one (or any other size!) in any wind less than a Force 5 you'd get more power out of it if you just spun the thing by hand and anything more and the little bugger would tear itself to bits.

Pity. Nice colour scheme, though.

Power curve for a
one-meter diameter blade.