Fold-up Shine Turbine offers "wind power that fits in your backpack"

[Celerity]

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/06/07/shine-turbine-portable-wind-power-design/





Canadian start-up Aurea Technologies has developed a portable wind turbine that compacts down to the size of a water bottle and was designed to provide reliable, renewable energy on the go. Intended for use during camping trips or in emergency situations, the Shine Turbine can collect as much as three phone charges worth of power in an hour.



When not in use, its three rotor blades can be folded down to create a compact, torpedo-shaped package around the size of a one-litre bottle. The turbine weighs less than 1.4 kilograms and has a power-to-weight ratio of 29.5 watts per kilogram, which according to Aurea Technologies makes it more efficient than any comparable solar panels, thermoelectric stoves or water turbines.



This is due to wind's "cubic relationship with power", the company explains. "As wind speeds double, power output increases eight times," said Aurea Technologies. "This, paired with Shine's high-efficiency blades and lightweight design, allows it to produce the most amount of energy for the least amount of weight compared to any other portable renewable charger."



While portable solar chargers are reliant on direct sun exposure, the company says the Shine Turbine works in a wide range of conditions including wind speeds from 13 to 45 kilometres per hour and temperatures from zero to 40 degrees Celsius. It can either charge devices directly or store the electricity in its internal battery, which can hold about four full phone charges. The turbine's body and blades are made from weatherproof polycarbonate plastic while the mount and motor enclosure are made from aluminium.

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[pandr32]

1. Awesome!

[highplainsdem]

2. I'd like one.

[BComplex]

3. Be nice if it could run a small portable heater or electric blanket!

Could definitely keep people safe.

[localroger]

4. Heaters of any type use way too much power for this kind of source

Like small solar panels, this is meant for electronics and LED lighting and not much else.

[Jerry2144]

5. But maybe

A small heat pump could be used to extract heat from outside and send it to something else. Not portable doing a heat pump, but more efficient than resistance heating. This could be done for an insulated small trailer and might provide enough heat for survival.

[localroger]

7. The technology (of heat pumps) isn't really up to it

Peltier junctions are of course heat pumps with no moving parts, but they're inefficient and anemic because nobody has figured out how to make one that effectively insulates the hot side of the junction from the cold side, so much of the temperature gradient they create is lost to heat leakage. Compressor based heat pumps are actually much more efficient. But small portable devices are doing well to supply 50 watts of power, which appears to be the Shine's rating in a stiff breeze. The smallest compressor based heat pumps I can find for consumer use require more like 1000 watts, as do most resistive heating devices. A heat pump that uses only 50 watts would be mechanically complex and a specialty device with a small market so also expensive. You could probably make a custom resistive heater on that scale that might be useful in a small, well-insulated shelter, but it's iffy whether it would be more useful than a bit more insulation.

[erronis]

6. One gram of radioactive cesium will power a cell phone for almost ever.

With your lead jacket you could tell everyone it's more exercise/training.

Really? This is stoopid. Since you're next to a river why not use the force of the water to drive a turbine?

Or put a 5'x5' solar panel above your head?

Or since you're already obviously upwardly-bound (economically, altidutinously), just have your venture-capitalist partners drone you in some supplies every few hours?

[hunter]

8. Cell phone addiction is real.

When I was young the only electronics I carried into the wilderness were inside my little 35mm film camera.