seems to be the obvious solution.Using the already existing masts the intire infrastructure for this is already in place. and hooking it to the grid should be easy. cool "upgrade for existing technology.
in cities every mobilemast could have one or more mounted.

I think you may want to know that Optiwind tried to get one of these windmills (Its first one) built in Goshen, CT.

They put the residents through six months of agony before the Planning and Zoning Board declined to give them a construction permit. Voting 5 to 0 to deny their application.

The reason given for the denile was that the design was judged to adversly impact the value of property values and, because none of these has ever been built, it was felt there was no way to assess its impact on the environment.

Overall the residents thought that this design was inappropriate to their neighborhood, and thought it was extremely ugly and would spoil the viewscape.

Thought you should be aware of this before you get involved with these guys.

Wind is NOT one of the most abundant resources that we've got. There are far better uses for funds to build power plants. These show piece trendy eco-energy projects have been creeping up everywhere. 99% of them are a complete waste of money - money which unfortunately tends to come from tax payers.

Hey Seanb, don't make such a statement without listing some of these supposed resources you speak about. Wind is a renewable resource and that's the key, it's renewable. Plus it's incredibly abundant. Wind and solar are the most abundant resources on the planet, it's just a matter of harvesting them for energy production.

It doesn't put CO2 and pollutants into the air like coal, natural gas, etc. Even hydrogen production puts CO2 into the atmosphere unless it's electrolyzed from water or sequestered. And then, where do you get the energy to do that. Yes, you will put some crud into the air when making the components of the wind turbines and generators, but the impact is far less than hydrocarbon based fuels.

Looks like it could kill a lot of birds?

i like what they're going for, it's a nice use of base physics: more fins, the easier it is to turn. but regardless of how much less energy it requires to turn the fins, it all comes back to "how much does it really take?"

i mean, if it only needs a slight breeze to start working, mission accomplished. but if it's still needing a substantial amount of wind power to get it going, then they might need to make some more adjustments before they start shipping these around the world to where there's gonna be nothing produced from it.

above all else, what's the energy output on these things? enough to run a factory, or enough to turn on a toaster?

Mark says he thinks this Optiwind thing could kill a lot of birds.

I think this thing is big and mean looking enough to kill horses!

@Nasty Looking, @Mark, @SeanB
Wind parks kill birds, yes, but only in very small numbers compared to cars, trains, airplanes, electrical lines, hunting and buildings (yes, buildings). Very small means 10,000 times less. 1 to 3 birds per 100MW windfarm per year. If we want to protect birds more than the whole environment and our own species, let's start by banning trains, cars, high buildings, your SUV and McMansion and then take down the wind parks as soon as you find another sustainable energy solution for this planet.

Here's a proof [http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/env/birds.htm], but if you search for more, you'll find it.

It may not kill birds, but this will wipe out a viewscape.

What an absolute eyesore.

Wouldn't let them built this near me. We have a three bladed windmill on the hill behind us... and we love it.