Shawn Frayne, creator of the Windbelt and one of the finalists for the Curry Stone Prize for humanitarian design, which was recently awarded at the IdeaFestival, is featured in BusinessWeek. From the article:
Frayne's device joins a growing array of simple, inexpensive
technologies created for developing countries that have also garnered
considerable attention in the U.S. and Europe. 'Innovations arising
from problems in developing economies should meet the challenges of
developed economies, too,' says Frayne emphatically. With that in mind,
Humdinger is taking 'a market-oriented approach,' he says. That means
pitching Windbelt technology as a green way to power air-quality
sensors or WiFi transmitters in new buildings in the developed world,
for instance. 'People are realizing that smartly designed
micro-installations can have a big impact,' says James Brew, a
principal architect with the Rocky Mountain Institute, a green think
tank in Aspen, Colo. The Windbelt's small size and negligible cost,
adds Brew, make it potentially applicable in developed settings—such as
new skyscrapers—as well as the more rugged conditions of the world's
rural villages.
This video demonstrating the principle behind his visionary alternative to turbine technology was also available on YouTube:
Wayne
Wikipedia: aeroelasticity
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