Halcium, a small company in Salt Lake City, Utah, claims it’s developed the safest and most powerful wind turbine on the planet. The portable device is called a PowerPod. Its small-scale wind turbines are designed for residential and urban environments where there isn’t enough space for a massive regular turbine.
It’s about the size of a large barrel and can sit on top of a building, campervan, sailboat, fence, or any secure surface. Wind can enter it from any direction and in multiple directions simultaneously. The circular blade is concealed within the shell, so it’s very safe to have around pets, wildlife, and even children.
One 1kW PowerPod generates as much as three times more power than a pole-mounted turbine because the shell funnels the wind flow to an advanced blade system within the pod, which increases wind speed by 40%. This acceleration of wind speed generates clean electricity even when wind speeds are low, so more power is generated more often.
PowerPod wind turbines can be hooked up to a power system in the same way and with the same equipment as solar panels. It can be used together with a solar system or alone.
Halcium founder Nick Hodges says it’s cheaper than solar panels and more efficient in non-sunny places (anywhere that gets less than 300 days of sunlight a year). He presents the PowerPod’s potential to produce equal or greater power than solar panels of similar output (1kW) on the map below.
The PowerPod is designed to be a cost-effective portable wind turbine that is both safer and more efficient than vertical or horizontal-axis wind turbines. Its unique design allows for air from 360 degrees and focuses it into an internal blade. While it works perfectly well with strong winds like a regular wind turbine, it also generates electricity with a low or average wind speed.
The cost of the device has not been announced. However, Halcium claims it will produce PowerPods with local manufacturing and materials whenever possible to support local markets and jobs.
