The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated that the United States has 800,000 square miles of land suited for wind farms, but if the Caltech model of VAWT is widely used, we might end up exploiting only a fraction of that available space. The same energy could be supplied with a reduced environmental impact.

Each of these ideas does fit the bill as unconventional, at least for now. With trial and error, the best of them might prove their worth, and maybe sometime in the not-too-distant future, one or more of these bold ideas won’t seem so bold anymore. Change is in the air, and the wind is noticeably starting to shift.