Breakthrough: The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind--and cheaply, too!

When we talk about Breakthrough technologies, most of us think of large-scale research communities where all the scientists dress in white clean-suits. The IKEA version of the future comes to mind. But in between Arthur C. Clarke and Phillip K. Dick, there is the middle ground of real-world development.

Shawn Frayne is a 28 year-old inventor from Mountain View, California. Working in Haiti, he saw a need for bringing easy, cheap renewable electricity to villagers for $2 - $5 in materials costs.

The large-scale wind farms we currently lobby for would not have worked here for a number of reasons; so, instead, he put nature to work.

The "Wind Belt", a winner of the 2007 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics, was the result.

As Frayne says in the accompanying video, "The breakthrough was how to get away from wind generators that spin. Everyone up to now has been trying to shrink turbines."

"Frayne's device is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines."

Says Peter Haas, founder of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, which helps people in developing countries to get environmentally sound access to clean water, sanitation and energy. "If Shawn's innovation breaks, locals can fix it. If a solar panel breaks, the family is out a panel."

Like micro-loans have revolutionized the burgeoning third-world economy, Frayne's Wind Belt brings a scalable technology into the hands of those who most desperately need it; and that's a real breakthrough...

Moving forward, we here at the Breakthrough Institute believe that large-scale government investment is the key to future energy independence, not because real inventions come out of $50 million dollar research grants alone, but because that kind unfettered funding gives scientists the chance to do what they do best, which is to think about science and not where their next meal-ticket is coming from.

Encouragingly enough, however, the world does not stand still despite (or in spite) of big government's slow time coming around to the idea. The breakthrough technologies that will bring our world closer to realizing a vision of energy independence are still making their ways to the forefront of competitions and science journals worldwide. And that's exactly why our hats (and belts) are off to you, Shawn!

More videos of Shawn at Popular Mechanics' Breakthrough Conference can be found here.

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