A Canadian company is developing turbines based on tethered, rotating balloons.
Magenn Power, based in Ottawa, has been around since 1978 when it developed and demonstrated the idea of a rotating, spherical airship. This rotated backwards about a horizontal axis as it moved forwards in order to take advantage of the Magnus Effect to more than double its lifting ability.
This has led to the idea of the Magenn Air Rotor System (or Mars), in which a tethered balloon is fitted with vanes to make it rotate – generating electric power as it does so. This scheme avoids the expense of having to mount conventional wind turbines on tall towers.
Mac Brown of Magenn Power says: “We are still in prototype phase and need to raise $5 million to finish the prototypes and bring the product into production.”
He estimates the cost of generated power at $3-5 per watt for small units and $1-2 for the larger ones.
“We expect a 10kW unit to cost between $30,000 and $50,000,” he says.
The company has appointed a distributor, Krystal Planet in Kansas. When we asked how the wind turbines would cope with some of the weather they get there, Brown replied: “In hurricane and tornado conditions you must bring the Mars unit to the ground.” More information from Magenn Power

Turbines powered by refuse A 140kW turbine has been developed to run on 13-30% methane – or biogas – which is too lean to be used as fuel by a conventional generating set.
James Oakley, managing director of Turbine Developments in Northern Ireland, says: “This is the only engine capable of this with no pilot fuel.”

It has a specialised combustion system and a purpose-designed engine. The turbine cycle is fairly straightforward, though the turbine is laid out in a special way.
The turbine and generator fit into a 6m shipping container. The engine and combustor have been perfected during three years of tests on a Biffa waste site. The company predicts a market of 665 engines in the UK, generating 93 MW.
The company has evolved out of work begun by Dr David Artt at The Queens University in Belfast on low cost target drone engines.