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Better Sleep and Better Electricity

A new wind turbine design keeps the noise down

By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor

28th of October 2008, 09:00 GMT

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A picture of the new SWIFT wind turbine design
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Noise has always been the main obstacle in the wide-scale implementation of personal wind turbines on private homes. The high number of decibels didn't allow for too much sleep at night, and that was coming from just one turbine. A whole block of them, and there wouldn't have been any more windows. But now, SWIFT came up with a new model, one that presumably cuts the noise emissions sufficiently enough to be installed on an average home.
 

The innovative design of the turbine consists of an outer ring that encompasses the seven-foot long propeller blades, thus reducing the levels of emitted sound to just 35 decibels, which is lower than the normal human tone of voice. Company scientists say that their product is now accessible to the average American household, due to the low price and the fact that the noise levels are finally acceptable.
 

Indeed, the base price per turbine is at about $10,000, which means that the invested sum will be recovered in about 3 to 4 years tops, considering the fact that each of them outputs about 2,000 kilowatts each year, which is approximately 25 percent of the needs of a normal household. Economically speaking, the cost per kilowatt of wind-generated electrical power is much lower than the one users would have to pay if they wanted to install solar cells on their roofs.
 

For now, these turbines are only available in Northeastern United States and Western Canada, but, if prospects look encouraging, SWIFT will push its merchandise throughout both countries. The company says that the costs for installation are minimal and that the turbines can be set up pretty easily.
 

For those environment-friendly people, such a device may prove to be very efficient in saving energy otherwise extracted from fossil fuels, which further pollute the Earth's atmosphere. Ecological solutions such as this may not seem like much, but most people are aware that the little things usually make a difference, not the big ones.

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wind turbine | wind energy | renewable energy | alternative power sources | SWIFT
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