Why vertical-axis wind turbines

Vertical-axis wind turbines rotate around an upright axis. Their layout supports direct-drive generation near the base and a compact design for local energy production.

Lift and drag designs

The WM 25 kW and WM 1000 W use lift from three vertical wings. The smaller WM 100 W uses two drag blades.

Designed for disassembly

The larger models use recyclable aluminium wings, wooden towers and steel foundations on reusable soil screws.

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Why we build them this way.

A vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotates around a vertical axis and operates independently of wind direction. In contrast, conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) are designed to turn and face the wind for efficient operation.

A vertical axis brings key advantages for wind turbines placed near homes, farms, and businesses: slower-moving wings, lower noise, and reduced disturbance to birds and bats.

A few things follow from the vertical layout.

Why vertical axis

Once the axis is vertical, much of the mechanical complexity is redundant, and what is left can be built from simple, recyclable materials on a foundation with no concrete.

Less maintenance: No yaw mechanism to turn into the wind, and no gearbox between the rotor and the generator. Fewer moving parts means less service over the life of the wind turbine, and no gear losses.
Lower noise: Low wing speed makes less noise, and the sound drops off faster with distance. That supports installation closer to homes, farms, and workplaces.
Less harm to birds and bats: The whole wing turns at the same, slower speed, so there is no fast-moving tip. Easier for birds and bats to detect and avoid, which reduces collision risk.
Environmentally friendly materials: Recyclable extruded aluminium wings on a tower of glulam (glued laminated timber). No glass fibre in the wings.
Easier to install and remove: Galvanised steel soil screws instead of a concrete foundation. Fast to install with little equipment on site, and the wind turbine can be taken down again without destructive work.

No gearbox between the rotor and the generator.

Direct-drive generator

Our generators are high-efficiency radial flux permanent magnet machines, designed and built in-house. With no gearbox between the wind turbine rotor and generator, there are fewer parts, less maintenance, and no gear losses.

On the WM 25 kW, the generator sits at the base of the tower. That puts the heaviest component on the ground, makes service straightforward, and allows for a larger-diameter generator that can run at the rotor's natural speed without gearing. On the smaller WM 1000 W and WM 100 W, the generator is integrated higher up in the structure, but the principle is the same: direct drive, no gearbox.

A. Rotating part: Everything that turns with the wings: the rotor, driveshaft, brake disc and the generator rotor at the base.
B. Static part: Everything that stays fixed: the tower, the base and the generator stator.

Low wing speed, quieter and easier on wildlife.

Tip speed

In a vertical-axis wind turbine, the entire wing sits at the same distance from the axis, so it moves at a uniform, relatively low speed. By comparison, conventional horizontal-axis wind turbines have long blades whose tips move much faster than the rest of the blade. Lower wing speeds make the wind turbine quieter and easier on wildlife.

Lower noise: Slower wings make less noise. The WM 25 kW runs quietly for its output, the sound it does make drops off faster with distance, and the 3D-printed winglets at the wing tips help reduce noise. This supports installation closer to homes, farms, and workplaces.
Less harm to birds and bats: The whole wing turns at the same, slower speed, so there's no fast-moving tip that's hard to make out. Research suggests that the wings are easier for birds and bats to detect and avoid, reducing collision risk. Reducing impacts on local biodiversity is a consideration throughout the design process.

Materials that can be reused or recycled at end of life.

Materials & recyclability

Old wind turbine blades are notoriously hard to recycle and often end up in landfill. We have designed our larger wind turbines so all materials can be recycled, including the wings.

Extruded aluminium

Wings

On the larger WM 1000 W and WM 25 kW, the wings are extruded aluminium. Fully recyclable, low embodied CO₂, no glass fibre, no microplastics.

Glulam

Tower

Pressure-treated glued laminated timber. Strong, light for its strength, and the wood itself offsets a meaningful share of the tower's embodied CO₂.

No concrete in the ground.

Soil screw foundation

Instead of a concrete foundation, we use galvanised steel soil screws driven into the ground.

Far lower embodied CO₂ than concrete.
Fast to install with minimal equipment on site.
The wind turbine can be removed without destructive work, and the soil screws can be reused or recycled.

We reused the soil screws from our WM 10 kW prototype in Halmstad when we installed the WM 25 kW on the same site.