The price does seem steep for something so simple it could be modelled with straws in three minutes, but I don't really understand the rest of the negativity.

Don't we want innovation in renewables? Shouldn't we be encouraging this kind of thing, trying out different designs to the traditional windmills and trying to make something easy to build, scale, install and operate?

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zdragnar 10 hours ago | parent [-]

When people are asking for money, it is entirely reasonable to apply some skepticism to the sales pitch.

In this case, they're charging a lot of money for a flimsy-looking product that is unlikely to capture much energy (low wind speeds at ground level).

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Animats 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Um, yes. 4,900€ for a 1KW device. That's way above market price.

On Amazon, a 1KW wind turbine is $500 to $1000. About half that on Alibaba. This is a common technology now, with lots of makers. Almost everybody sells a bladed turbine that mounts on top of a pole and has a tailfin to make it pivot in the wind.

What's with this thing? It's at ground level. It's expensive. It's built out of plastic tarps that probably won't survive a storm. The scheme for making it follow the wind looks flaky. Their "business plan" consists of copies of the business cards of people they met at a trade show.[1]

When I read this article, I was near a little 200W wind turbine at a horse barn. Little five-bladed thing up on a pole, with a tail that makes it follow the wind. It powers a few lights. It's been running for years now with no attention. It's 2026, people. This stuff just works.

[1] https://www.windtowatt.com/doc/Market%20Validation%20En.pdf

	▲	zdragnar 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Based on the website, it looks like their primary strategic advantage is ease of portability / shipping for off grid scenarios. The fact that it is made of plastic tarps means there's very little specialty material that is needed to repair damage, unlike relatively fragile turbine blades that need a bit more care when shipping, frequent assembling and disassembling and weather, etc. I'll go on record as saying that I don't think that those advantages come close to making up for the cost, and I'd like to think they plan on bringing the cost down significantly when they grow up... but I'm not really holding my breath there either.