Conventional horizontal axis turbines are optimised for one thing – steady, high-altitude airflow far above the ground – which makes them largely irrelevant to the sites that need power most: the factory, the remote outpost, the industrial yard, the rooftop, according to Novventos. At ground level, wind can be turbulent, variable and directionless, and harvesting it with conventional equipment has consistently produced ‘disappointing results’, it adds.

Novventos claims its new vertical axis wind turbine is ‘not an incremental improvement’ on conventional technology but a ‘complete rethink of how a rotor captures energy in turbulent air’.  

In standard vertical axis turbines, one half of the rotor always turns into the wind, generating opposing drag that caps the energy available. Novventos says its ‘naca.boost’ turbine addresses this at the design level. Its aerofoil-shaped blades are designed with a proprietary geometry to generate lift forces in addition to drag. Lift is significantly stronger than drag at comparable wind speeds, enabling the rotor to extract far more energy from the same airflow than any drag-only design can achieve, it claims.

The second principal innovation is a wind-guiding housing. Its asymmetric geometry performs two aerodynamic functions at once: it shields the returning blade from incoming airflow so it cannot act as a brake, and on the advancing side it directs and accelerates the wind before it reaches the rotor. Since wind power scales with the cube of wind speed, even a modest velocity increase at the rotor face delivers a significant energy gain, explains the company.  

Turbulence tolerance is the third element. The vertical axis configuration accepts wind from any direction without mechanical yaw adjustment. Where conventional turbines are stressed by turbulent, multi-directional flow, the naca.boost rotor is engineered to work within it – variable, low-level wind increases rotor excitation rather than degrading performance, the company states.

Six integrated 510Wp photovoltaic panels are mounted onto the housing, adding solar generation without increasing the unit’s footprint. Novventos reports near-silent operation at 10dB at 10m, and annual output of up to 10MWh from a self-contained hybrid system.

Economics are also improved, according to the company. Near-ground deployment strips out the costs that make large-scale wind prohibitive for most operators: no underground cabling, no substations, no land lease commitments and none of the extensive site engineering conventional installations demand. Novventos claims units can be generating power within days of delivery.

Franz Humer, company CEO and Co-Founder, said: ‘We knew from the beginning that solving the near-ground wind challenge required a fundamentally better turbine… But a better turbine alone is not enough. The real answer is wind and solar working together, and naca.boost, with its integrated photovoltaic panels, is the proof of that.’