New approach to wind power (without rotating blades) will exceed efficiency of wind turbines

[kristopher]

6. My read of the way it works

The wind is caught by the dish and an imbalance occurs, this imbalance results in motion that transfers the force to one or more of the 4 pistons. The altered orientation of the dish leads to a different imbalance that causes further motion etc etc etc.

I believe "knot path" describes a schematic view of the complex pattern of movement which results from shifting winds acting on the dish in the above fashion.

I have no idea what the blades are but they do not appear to be intended to rotate the wheel or the dish. I suspect it is some sort of stabilizer or apparatus for steering into the wind.

This design suffers from the same limitations that affect vertical axis wind turbines and all small rooftop mounted turbines. The question isn't whether wind can be harnessed in this way; I think you could come up with a number of different approaches that will manage to harness wind energy in one fashion or another. What has to be considered is how will it work to provide a lot of power. Can it be scaled up to large multi-megawatt units? Can those large units be projected high enough into the air to capture the stronger winds away from the friction of the ground?

It seems probable that this design can will be limited in exactly the same ways VAWTs are when those two questions are explored.