I'm with you in that any mechanical system will be more trouble than a photo-electrical system however...we really can't afford to overlook any renewable power sources at this time.
If nothing else, there is a lot of security to be gained from the fact that wind speed is anti-correlated with sunshine in many places.
In snowy climates, brushing off panels is a pain in the ass and heating solutions result in net neutral generation for the most part, so there’s no point. In heavily overcast climates, recouping costs from installation takes dramatically more time. Wind is ubiquitous and doesn’t run into these problems…
Who brushes off their panels? Snow comes crashing down off mine within 24 hours of the storm. The whole house shakes in a very unnerving manner as it hits the porch roof. How do you brush off snow without risking damage anyway?
Not my experience in northern NH. It snows, then the panels are covered for maybe a day, then it all slides off like an avalanche. It’s like having a metal roof.
I’m not sure how a wind turbine would fair with winter weather. I would think they could be subject to icing like any other propeller—-reducing their output and possibly creating mechanical damage. Aviation has certainly thought about that problem a lot, so there might be solutions.
I never brush snow off my panels. It slides off after a couple days at worst (and does a nice job of cleaning in the process). TBH I don't really care because my production is very low in winter anyway.
The amount of energy you can extract from the wind is a function of swept area for a conventional wind turbine. I don't see how this is going to be much different, even if it is incredibly efficient. "swept area" in the video is, what, around 6 square meters? So about the same as a wind turbine of 1.9m in diameter. If it has the same efficiency, we're talking about maybe 1600W maximum.
The design may, or may not be good and dependable, and may, or may not require less maintenance than a conventional wind turbine.
But a lot of the problem is mounting it on a roof. There's a reason why the commercial units are being built bigger and bigger, and higher and higher. The higher up you go, the more steady and strong the wind becomes. At rooftop level, a lot of the wind is blocked by trees and buildings.
So I don't care how good the turbine design is, mounting it on a roof isn't a great solution for generating much power.
Its amazing. Been using it for like 2.5/3 years now and it has really helped in becoming energy independent.
Don't have batteries yet as the tech is unproven here, but on grid-off grid without batteries already has given us more usable energy during the day when the grid goes.
I'm pretty confused about this... I don't think any household devices are willing to gracefully power down when the wind stops for a minute. Like, what's a microwave going to do when voltage drops?
I can't imagine this working for anything except maybe charging laptops, or other battery devices.
There are definitely moving parts in that video -- does it have to be cleaned? Do the bearings wear out? Will a bird nest in it? Fill with leaves?
I definitely hope it works but I'm skeptical this is really as mindlessly easy to do as to drop panels on a residential house.