Wind power is gradually rising to the challenge, and in the residential market, it is as popular as solar power. Meet the Liam F1 Mini Urban Wind Turbine by Archimedes – a miniature wind turbine specially developed for city use.

This small and revolutionary product delivers energy to home roofs and generates up to 1500 kWh of free electricity per year — and it is silent. The Liam F1 is quickly proving to be a strong contender for solar energy solutions and a worthy contender for solar panels for consumers who are concerned about sustainability and the environment.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.net
    0·
    3 days ago

    The article triggers my hype meter, which is a bad thing if the product actualy delivers what it claims.

    The design is new and looks neat, so I searched for an article with more information, and found this:

    https://newatlas.com/the-archimedes-liam-f1-urban-wind-turbine/32263/

    They do firmly claim a very high energy extraction rate (a power coefficient of 0.8):

    Today the company officially introduced its Liam F1 Urban Wind Turbine, which is said to have an energy yield that is “80 percent of the maximum that is theoretically feasible.” That’s quite the assertion, given that most conventional wind turbines average around 25 to 50 percent.

    The downside is a rotor with great surface area, and thus mass. It doesn’t weigh 20 kilograms like a bladed 1.5 meter turbine might be expected to weigh, it weighs 75 kilos.

    The 75-kg (165-lb) 1.5-meter (5-ft)-wide Liam obviously doesn’t look much like a typical turbine. It draws on the form of the nautilus shell, and the screw pump invented by ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse.

    For now, sadly, the cost is ridiculous. But I guess they need to recover their development cost somehow, and the manufacturing cost is considerably higher than with bladed turbines.

    Although no price was given in today’s announcement, a previous posting on the company website puts it at €3,999 (about US$5,450).

    It looks like something that should be printed out of thin plastic on a somewhat smaller scale. The printer would need crazy optimizations to work faster, though.