Humdinger Windbelt.jpg

Remember Shawn Frayne? He was the inventor of the Humdinger Windbelt, a wind energy harnessing device that's not a turbine. The Humdinger Windbelt is a machine that generates electricity through the vibration the wind causes on its vane. Humdinger Windbelt won Popular Mechanics' 2007 Breakthrough Award. This year, Shawn Frayne updated Popular Mechanics on the advancements the Humdinger Windbelt has achieved since then.

The upgraded device is now 100 times more efficient than before, generating between 3 to 10 watts in power at around $2 per watt, which hopefully will go down even more in time. A 1-meter Windbelt could charge multiple cell phones simultaneously, or more importantly, power LED lights for poor rural areas in developing nations. Numerous 1-meter Windbelts strung together have the potential to produce electricity in a larger scale. There's a smaller "micro" version (pictured above) that could be used to charge small gadgets as well, but a much larger 10-meter iteration also exists, albeit more for experimental purposes.

And just what are the chances that the Humdinger Windbelt would be available for public consumption? Frayne reckons that upon finding industrial partners, the "micro" Windbelt could be in the market in as soon as 6 months, while it would take 18 to 24 months before the 1-meter version would be ready.