Is He Blowing Wind or is Wind World Wrong?

If state Representative Michael Costello has his way, Newburyport, Massachusetts will be the first location on the U.S. East Coast with an installed wind blind oscillating tower which inventor Gene Kelley calls WindWing.

Kelley, a Santa Barbara, Calif. resident who started a research firm called InnovaTech LLC in the summer of 2006, is a reputable inventor with 40 years of experience. His best known invention was part of a group effort to develop the so-called “rumble strips” on the side of highways so drivers know if they are skirting the lines.

By early 2007, Kelley created another firm called W2 Energy Development Corp. with a focus on a particular device that has the potential to shake-up the existing wind turbine world.

According to Kelley, the American Wind Energy Association is wrong when they say traditional wind turbines (like the one the City Council just approved for Mark Richey Woodworking) convert 45% of electricity.

Kelley says those turbines really generate 5%, and his invention is 45 to 60% more efficient.

Click the above image to zoom-in on the technology.

Two stories in today’s regional press, one from the Newburyport Daily News and the other from the Eagle Tribune, highlight Kelley’s innovative patent.

For more detail, see an account from last August in the Ventura County Star and a subsequent review with a lot of facts at New Energy News.

I’m skeptical how efficient this is and why nobody had the vision to invent this earlier. I also wonder if Costello is appealed more by the artistic design (like Cambridge’s Porter Square kinetic art sculpture) or if he truly wants a wind turbine, call it what you will, standing watch over downtown Newburyport.

More study is necessary, and I’d like to see a joint undertaking of the Newburyport Energy Advisory Committee and the Planning Board Wind Energy Subcommittee to investigate the pros and cons of this technology.

If Newburyport is the target site, why is Amesbury Town Hall the venue of a public forum with Kelley tonight?

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