This company has made substantial progress in the market place for both wind farms, commercial and residential installations. Helix Wind, www.helixwind.com .  Unlike my previous posts on early entrants into the vertical wind market, see http://mygreensuit.com/2007/09/10/vertical-wind-turbine/ .  Helix has built products that are quiet, efficient, and look good.  I could see this is a back yard, knowing that it was producing energy and helping our environment.

See their video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9flSPAdOLk

Look for costs to continue to come down, as lower cost materials are used and mass production starts.  Believe it or not the height required for most of these units in a residential setting, is 30 feet above the tallest trees in your surrounding area.  Clearly, many people could get away with a simple, lower cost installation and start going green.

I love this idea. The problem with many wind turbine installations has been the NIMBY it fosters in local communities. The large turbines, destroy the view, make too much noise and cost too much. Those are the usual complaints. We have a major wind project held up along the cape cod coast for exactly these reasons.

Well what if commercial buildings incorporated the vertical designed turbine described below ? What if cites incorporated these units into there power systems (think electrical distribution poles), or into there signage throughout the city? What if billboard owners put these units on there billboards (especially the display units with leds)?

These seem much less obtrusive than other wind turbines, they can capture the wind from any direction, they are quieter than traditional. Yes, they produce less energy than many of the bigger units, but this is a volume game here. Hopefully with mass production would come lower per unit costs. Some Specs on the big selling unit;

Some cool examples of installations at their site http://www.quietrevolution.co.uk/