The Future of Wind Turbines? No Blades:
"It’s no longer surprising to encounter 100-foot pinwheels spinning in the
breeze as you drive down the highway. But don’t get too comfortable
with that view. A Spanish company called Vortex Bladeless is proposing a
radical new way to generate wind energy that will once again upend what
you see outside your car window.
Their idea is the Vortex, a bladeless wind turbine that looks like a giant
rolled joint shooting into the sky. The Vortex has the same goals as
conventional wind turbines: To turn breezes into kinetic energy that can
be used as electricity. But it goes about it in an entirely different way."
See:
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/future-...nes-no-blades/