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We have more than enough wind energy to power the whole world. But conventional wind turbines don’t do that great of a job of harnessing it.

Saphon Energy introduced a radical innovation in wind technology that just brought a much-needed breath of fresh air to the industry. The Tunisian company created a bladeless wind turbine which draws inspiration from the design of a ship’s sails.

Instead of harvesting wind energy with rotating blades, this turbine uses a sort of round sail held in a frame like a flat satellite dish. As the wind pushes on it, the dish oscillates in a back and forth motion, which allows the conversion of the majority of the wind’s kinetic energy into mechanical energy through the use of pistons. These pistons are connected to a hydraulic system that converts mechanical energy into hydraulic pressure and then into electricity.

This turbine brings along a lot of innovations. It:

Is half the cost of a typical wind turbine

Is quieter than traditional models

Harnesses the power without hurting birds

Harvests about 80 percent of the available wind energy, which is 2.3 times more efficient than a traditional bladed turbine.

Reduces the amount of energy lost through poor aerodynamics and discards unnecessary structural elements such as the blades, hub and gear box.

This zero blade technology is no doubt a cool concept with impressive efficiency and low cost. Saphon Energy is said to be in talks with a number of potential manufacturing partners.