This idea might take off

We make it a rule never to feature next generation products on this site, but to wait until they are actually on the market. The new floating wind turbine from Magenn deserves to be an exception. It is highly likely to move from prototype to production in 2008, and you need to know about this beauty now if you are currently evaluating your off-grid land, and wondering what you will do for power in three years time.

It floats using helium tanks, and is tethered to the ground by a 1,000 foot power cable, catching the steady winds which prevail at that height. It was featured in the New York Times this week, because the inventors, Magenn Power of Ottawa Canada, have had $5m from a Californian investor to build prototypes, and received a Patent last month.

Traditional wind turbines can be unreliable sources of energy because, well, the wind blows where it will, says The Times. Not the case 1,000 feet up. “At a thousand feet, there is steady wind anywhere in the world,” says Magenn’s founder Mac Brown.

The helium-filled Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS) contains a turbine that spins around a horizontal axis and can produce 10 kilowatts of energy as it floats 1,000 feet above the earth while attached to a copper tether. To take advantage of this constant breeze, Brown has developed a lighter-than-air wind turbine capable of powering a rural village. “Picture a spinning Goodyear blimp,” Brown says. Filled with helium, outfitted with electrical generators and tethered to the ground by a conductive copper cable, the 100-foot-wide MARS will produce 10 kilowatts of energy anywhere on earth. As the turbine spins around a horizontal axis, the generators convert the mechanical energy of the wind into electrical energy, then send it down for immediate use or battery storage.

Already, larger models — ones that might light a skyscraper — are in the works. Brown says he hopes his floating wind turbines will power off-the-grid villages in the developing world. He says the governments of India and Pakistan have expressed interest.

At least one argument against wind turbines — that they slice up birds and bats — isn’t valid, according to Brown. “This thing is bigger than a house,” he says. “A bird can see it and a bat can sense it.

But the planners will not like the new turbines, and they will affect helicopter flight paths, so there will be a battle to bring them into service. Bring it on!