Green's dream is that the world will catch on to this invention.
A wonderful idea floated into the brain of 86-year-old Jackson resident Raymond Green one night as he was drifting into sleep.
His idea, a turbine that effectively harnesses the wind and transforms it into energy four times as much as it collects is one that not only has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, but to create new jobs and generally make everyone's life easier.
The octogenarian inventor has recently been accepted into the Pepsi Refresh Project, which rewards local movers and shakers who are working to have a positive impact on their community and on the world. Green is eyeing a $250,000 prize that will really set his turbine (figuratively) in motion, once he has garnered a sufficient amount of votes. Individuals can log onto the Pepsi Refresh Challenge website and vote for Green's turbine.
The turbine could be designed to power everything from a computer, to a car and even an entire house. It collects wind through a cone, spinning a circle of impeller blades that, in turn, spins a bicycle wheel. The bicycle wheel turns an alternator via an automotive timing belt, thus creating a greener, alternative source of energy that could replace energy supplied by large gas companies or even Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
Unlike a windmill that creates power by the wind pushing directly against its blades, Green's innovation compresses air and creates more torque, requiring less wind than a standard windmill. His apparatus also is more practical than using solar power. "Wind pretty much is blowing all of the time," Green said.
The device could be deployed almost everywhere, from windswept coasts to remote mountaintops, and beyond. "It's something they could use up in Alaska or the North Pole," he said. "They can literally create this out of bamboo and canvas out on an island. Imagine, too, if they had this turbine at the Mt. Everest base camp at 1,000 feet. They would use this instead of relying on gas and other fuel supplies."
Green has developed his turbine with almost no experience in the engineering field - though he does have more than a working knowledge of physics. In fact, he is a retired bulldozer and backhoe operator. But he is something of a dynamo in the invention department: he says he was one of the first in the 1950s to conceptualize the adjustable wrench - also known as the crescent wrench, the one with the adjustable jaw - but failed to receive a patent in time.
Green's dream is that the world will catch on to his invention, and is working to get his prototype produced on a much larger scale. Already, he has patents pending in Europe and in New Zealand and Australia. He envisions his turbine on houses, boats, cars and in businesses. "Imagine how many jobs this would create," Green added. "It really would stimulate things in the economy."
Source:
http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp?c=270164
