89 year old man develops a bladeless, bird-friendly wind turbine

Retired veteran, Raymond Green, saw the danger bladed wind generators pose to birds and bats and, at the age of 89, designed and patented a compressed air, enclosed wind turbine.  It's specifically built to not hurt the flying animals and has no external blades.  instead, it's got an "inner compression cone" compresses incoming air and speeds it up, creating more power.

In addition, the machine makes virtually no noise.

According to Green, these units can be manufactured as small, personal systems or huge wind farm models.  His working prototype cost around $650 to make.

 

The generators can replace, or be added to, existing models

According to the Green's website

"Traditional three blade turbines knock the birds out of the sky because the birds can not see the massive, spinning, blades that turn between 80mph and 190mph, therefore hitting them and knocking them to the ground, killing them. Our design does not have any external moving parts to hit the birds. Our unit is easy to see so the birds can avoid it, and all moving parts are internal. The blades are mounted behind the windsock and inner compression cone, therefore making them nonaccessible to birds. Also, our turbines make virtually no noise."

Green's company, Catching Wind Power, selected Sigma Design Company to test, analyze, refine, optimize and manufacture the turbine.

 

Below is a brief introduction to the machine; you can see how the air is compressed and multiplied to 4x pressure as it's inside the vessel

 

 

 

Image Credit: http://offgridquest.com/energy/89-year-old-man-develops-bladeless-bird-

http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10336

http://www.catchingwindpower.com/aboutus.htm