The nonturbine wind alternative

Yeah, my first thought was that assuming the cost was small enough, this would be great technology to power bike lights.

Could you power the fan with the generator?
That could be infinite energy. (albeit very small amounts)

@suckithardnfast

The most you can get out of that fan's energy is the amount of energy you put into it. In other words, you won't be powering the fan with its own power since every single bit of movement it creates would have to be consumed and fully recovered to power it, and there's still efficiency losses which make it impossible.

Oh ok. That makes sense. Too bad.

This man is a genius!

This is an elegantly simple solution to an otherwise complex problem. Scalable from milliwatts to megawatts! Outstanding innovation!

i don't recall him saying the word 'crap'. surely, this makes it difficult, if not impossible, for him to have pronounced it incorrectly?

Not really, the belt can be made out of fiber braided chord. That doesn't make any noise at all when it sways on buildings, bridges, and is even used on winches. The only thing you hear is a motor. The band would need to be titanium or an alloy, to prevent rusting and to retain its flexibility without snapping.

1 - About a thousand times less noise than conventional wind turbines.
2 - Strong but flexible materials.

I want one for my ipod