Kyle Bassett, a Canadian PhD student, has spent years focused on the design of a sustainable wind turbine project, inspired by the year-and-a-half he spent living in a remote area of Nicaragua. Having teamed up with other young like-minded makers, Bassett formed RMRD TECH with the goal of creating sustainable solutions to developing world issues, starting with the "small turbine to make a big difference." The Venecia turbine blades, named for the community in Nicaragua where Bassett developed them, are a vertical-axis sail-blade design created largely via 3D printing technology to allow for time- and cost-efficiency; the final design is intended to cost less than $300. The design is collapsible, folding into a 100 cm x 10 cm tube, and can be installed in about two minutes, ready to generate about 5V USB power to charge devices or a LiPo battery pack. RMRD TECH hopes to get the project launched on Kickstarter this spring to enhance operations from the current PrintrBot Simple Metal 3D printer and PLA material in use. For more details on the turbine project, check out the full article: http://3dprint.com/43449/rmrd-tech-small-wind-turbines/


Below is a photo of a turbine in action: