Startup "ExRo is not your average wind power company, though. This think-outside-the-box firm has reinvented one of the most basic components of wind turbines -- the generator. Its new design promises up to 50 percent more efficiency and lower production costs as well."

"The new generator scraps the mechanical transmission, replacing it with an electrical one. The new transmission still requires a bit of blade pitching when winds are extremely high. However, it is able to extend the peak efficiency range significantly, balancing gusts and lulls, and producing, over the course of the year, up to 50 percent more power."



"Ed Nowicki, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary who consulted on the project said some locations could even see their power output double."

"The generator is relatively standard in basic design, with magnets attached to a rotating shaft that create a current as they pass stationary copper coils arranged around the shaft. In a normal generator all the coils are switched on. When turning too slowly, this can cause excess resistance, decreasing the generator efficiency."

"ExRo estimates that a utility employing its new generator will make 57 percent more money from a turbine over the course of a year. These estimates come from scale models. The company plans to test a small 5 kW turbine in the field later this year. The company then plans to aggressively ramp up to megawatt-scale designs, at which point it will release finalized efficiency figures."