The Jellyfish Plug and Play Wind Turbine
There are so many good things going on with small-scale wind turbines -- they're a beacon of good intentions, affordable, and now super easy to install -- it's a shame that in practice, micro wind's benefits are infamously dubious. Potential counter-productiveness aside, the Jellyfish Wind Appliance is bar none the coolest and weirdest-looking micro turbine to draw major league attention -- and that's saying something.
The Jellyfish's odd design and plug-and-play installation has taken it all the way to the semi finals in Google's Project 10 to the 100th contest. What's so special about this thing? Well, it's mostly two things: it's only going to cost $400 and it plugs directly into a standard wall outlet -- dumping power back onto the grid.
If the prospect of hooking up a vertical axis wind turbine for $400 ($199 with tax rebates) has you salivating, you might want to consider the bigger picture. The Jellyfish will net you all of 40kWh a month -- supposedly enough to power the lights in a home with energy efficient LED lighting. At that rate, you would break even in 7 years.
Would the turbine ever offset its own carbon footprint? I hope so, but I'm a little bit skeptical. You could see the Jellyfish in stores in as soon as 12 months.
[via Treehugger]
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