Wind power for households promised by 6-bladed vertical axis turbines

Icelandic vertical axis wind turbine manufacturer IceWind has launched their suite of turbines in the United States, opening up the possibility for residents to install their own wind turbines to generate electricity.

IceWind bills itself as “the premier manufacturer of compact vertical axis wind turbines for residential and commercial use” and, at the end of July the company announced that it would be selling its residential and commercial vertical axis wind turbines to customers in the United States.

Both its Freya turbine for residential use and their Njord line of commercial turbines will now be available to US customers, providing the opportunity for residential deployment through to commercial applications such as powering telecommunication towers, outdoor advertising, on-site office trailers, and more.

“We are excited to bring our turbines to America,” said IceWind’s CEO Sæþór Ásgeirsson. “With a blustery midsection, gusty extremities, and an overall interest in renewable energy, we are looking forward to America embracing our unique wind turbines for both residential and commercial applications.

“Our recent demo event on the Texas coast over the Independence Day weekend proved that there is great interest among Americans for a robust individual solution to renewable energy.”

IceWind demonstrated their micro wind turbine on the Port Aransas Beach, near the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, over the American Independence holiday weekend, showing off their innovative turbine design which combines two types of turbine blades: the ‘Savonieus’ drag type blades that date back to the Persian Empire, and ‘Darrieus’ lift type blades, commonly seen on conventional wind turbines and airplanes.

“The concept is simple: We’re taking time tested technologies and bringing them into the modern era,” said Ásgeirsson in June. “Using super-strong materials such as aerospace-grade aluminum, carbon fiber, and high-grade stainless steel, our turbines are built to withstand anything.”

The ‘Freya’ residential model is not designed to provide full power for the average home, but rather as a supplementary power source. According to the company, two to three Freyas would be enough to cover a home’s full average power usage requirements. Further, IceWind claims that the cost of installing their Freya turbines to match a house’s average power demands (“excepting central air conditioning”) is “comparable to installing [solar] photovoltaics”.

“We are so thrilled to bring the power, beauty, and reliability of IceWind’s turbines to the US, and know that this will be just the start of a new pillar of renewable energy in the US, home installed wind power,” said IceWind’s US project manager Samuel Gerbus.

Designed to withstand everything from blizzards to dust storms, hurricanes, sleet, and heavy rain, IceWind’s vertical axis turbines could be a significant gamechanger for small-scale operations and residential dwellings looking to generate clean electricity, or even to go independent of the grid altogether. Built to withstand Iceland’s notorious weather conditions, they will likely stand up well to the variety of weather variables inherent across the United States.