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Novel, midsize wind turbine tested on dairy farm

Optiwind is one the few companies searching for the middle ground in wind power--somewhere between the gigantic three-blade wind mills and the small turbines for individual homes.

The company has erected its first midsize, production-scale wind turbine on a family farm in its home state of Connecticut to test performance, the company said late last week. It received a $1 million loan from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund for the project.

Optiwind is targeting organizations that have electricity bills around $100,000 per year and are looking for on-site power generation to offset those expenses. Alternatives approaches have included … Read more

Is community wind power full of hot air?

Call it wind power for the neighborhood.

Some companies are trying to stake out a middle ground in wind power by making mid-size turbines big enough for a school or big-box retailer to use, but not so big that they require a convoy of trucks to be delivered.

Distributed wind generation with medium-size turbines runs counter to the prevailing trends in the industry. In the past several years, turbines have gotten bigger and bigger to lower the cost of generated electricity. At the opposite extreme, there is rapid growth in sales of the small wind machines designed for a single … Read more

Built-in mouse fan sure beats Axe

Brando is such a thoughtful company. When the Hong Kong gadget maker isn't dispensing heated mice to warm us up, it's worrying about how to correct our posture. It's even given us a USB lightbulb to brighten up the gray days of winter.

And now it's extended this compassion to matters of personal hygiene with the "USB OptiWind Mouse." This fan-cooled peripheral is designed to keep palms dry even for the most avid gamers with its built-in air conditioner. And it's a lot more discreet than such alternatives as the "Anti-Perspiration Wrist Pad&… Read more