Turbine Free Wind Power: Alternative Alternative Energy

check this video:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1214137061?bctid=1233395616

Wind power is great, but those big turbines are inefficient (the bearings suck out a lot of energy) and, if you're a passing bird, dangerous. Shawn Frayne has come up with an alternative to this alternative energy, which he says is ten times more efficient than a turbine and, because it has no bearings, scales well to smaller sizes.

Inspired by the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which you've all seen shaking itself apart, the Windbelt is a tight plastic strip stretched in a frame, joined to magnets at both ends. When the wind blows across the belt, it vibrates (like when you blow a blade of grass to make music) and the magnets move inside wire coils, generating power. This table top version will put out 40 milliwatts and can power an LED. It's cheap and simple, and can generate power from breezes as slow as 10mph, making it ideal for developing nations (California based Frayne worked in Haiti and saw a need for cheap power to replace dangerous kerosene lamps).