Massachusetts-based Eastern Wind Power (EWP) has formed a joint venture with German industrial giant Siemens to create a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) to be mounted on the roofs of high-rise buildings or pole-mounted in open high-wind areas.

EWP designed, built and tested a Sky Farm 50kW VAWT that is about 20ft high and 16ft in diameter. Siemens developed the generator and inverter system. Multiple 50kW turbines can be positioned about 16ft apart to create a wind farm.

On top of the successful joint venture, EWP has worked closely with companies like DuPont on coatings for the blades and with 3M on blade icing tests. In addition, the team has worked with a technology spin-off from Harvard University called SLIPS Technologies.

SLIPS stands for Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces, and it is used to keep ice or debris from forming on the blades or in any crevices.

The Sky Farm 50kW VAWT was trialled at Martha’s Vineyard Airport in Edgartown, Massachusetts. The turbine can produce about 45,000kWhr of energy per year. EWP has also designed a mobile unit for disaster relief applications — plus a 30kW system.