As ScribeMedia and the November issue of Popular Mechanics reports, Popular Mechanics has honoured MIT alum Shawn Frayne for developing a small, scaled down wind generator, dubbed a windbelt. The device uses a membrane that flutters as air passes through it, with magnets at its ends generating an electric charge.
Prototype testing suggests that 28 year old Frayne’s device is 30-40 times more effective than the best microturbines, after generating 40 milliwatts in 10mph winds.
Frayne came up with the idea for the windbelt after travelling to Haiti, helping locals in remote villages with their technical problems. Frayne saw the need for a proper portable wind power generator, that could be used for a variety of applications in the remote villages. Popular Mechanics reports:
Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well—there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. “With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).
Furthermore, in developed nations, the device can be used in a variety of places where batteries are required for small devices, currently making them expensive to maintain. The cited example is the case of temperature sensors in large buildings, of which the batteries cost an estimated $2000 during the devices’ lifetimes.
Given a myriad of potential applications, we should keep a sharp eye open for his invention in the future!
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