Postable wind turbine

Ridiculous, just bring a $20 battery pack and charge it at home or bring a solar panel. I dont even understand why people need charging units for most applications anyway. Do people go on muilti-day remote adventures to have prolonged Angry Bird deathmatches on their iPhones?

That’s...interesting.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3964426/Never-miss-Instagram-opportunity-portable-WIND-TURBINE-charge-phone-world-s-remote-locations.html

20 kN wrote:

Ridiculous, just bring a $20 battery pack and charge it at home or bring a solar panel. I dont even understand why people need charging units for most applications anyway. Do people go on muilti-day remote adventures to have prolonged Angry Bird deathmatches on their iPhones?

Playing Angry Birds is, of course, ridiculous, but electrical power can also be used to recharge satellite phones,satellite communicators, headlamps, two way  radios, smartphones for GPS navigation, batteries for cameras,  just to name a few not very creative ways of killing electrons.

Article mentions that this turbine is 2lb, that would purchase a lot of power bricks. Perhaps an adventurer would have to carefully consider weight and functionality trade offs when making their choice. Perhaps length of planned trip and number of available sherpas would be a factor helping to make that decision.

20 kN wrote or bring a solar panel. 

I guess Finnish people have a better concept of "Arctic Circle" and "Polar Night" than someone living in Hawaii  

Seeing that you can buy a wind generator kit from Kohl's for $35 today, why would you need to fund an Indigogo project to develop a wind turbine that you put on a cable? This is niche market within a niche.

Very Cool!  And at least it was called a "Turbine" and not a "Windmill"  (Trump quote).

Having been testing this product, I just wanted to give my .02

First off, I do feel this product has a use. Yes, it is a niche market. No, it is not for everyone. Many people who are out on shorter trips will be just fine with a lighter wetight battery backup. 

But, on current day expeditions, almost without exception people are bring electronic and require a way to get them powered. Camera batteries, gps devices, cell phones with map/camera/music apps, satellite messaging devices, and emergency beacons are all current companions on modern expeditions. No, we are not as hardy as the expeditions of yesteryear, but this is the current reality. Solar panels have been the go-to in answering this need for sometime now, but I believe they have their flaws.

On my last two major expeditions (both 2+ weeks in the backcountry) I have taken solar panels an have had my fair share of issues with them. First, when it is sunny, you want to be out climbing (not charging your devices) and when the weather is bad, you are in camp; a perfect time to recharge your devices and listen to music/edit photos. Also,the GoalZero solar panel I took last time (for group use) weighed almost exactly the same as the WindPal. The WindPal is proving far more easier to pack and takes up less space. Lastly, I found the solar panel to be quite fragile, where as this seems to be more durable. 

I am very much looking forward to taking this with me on my next expediton, a 3 week trip to Torres Del Paine. I feel this product is quite useful for small teams doing extended backcountry trips, backcountry basecamping, mountainous areas with long spells of bad weather, and guided/group expeditions. 

Jim Titt wrote:

I guess Finnish people have a better concept of "Arctic Circle" and "Polar Night" than someone living in Hawaii  

Where do you find a tree to hook this to above the arctic circle?

I'm look forward to my crag being overrun with dirty slacklining hippies using this so they can power speakers to play loud shitty reggae.

ebmudder wrote:

Where do you find a tree to hook this to above the arctic circle?

Well it certainly a downside that you need something strong to tie the Finnish one to which is why I prefer the look of the other one. However there are plenty of trees up above the Arctic circle, I´ve only been to northern Sweden and that was forested and Finland has more. The Gulf stream helps!

in the absence of trees you could easily attach it to one of the guy out points on the tent

wisam wrote:

in the absence of trees you could easily attach it to one of the guy out points on the tent

Bingo!

If Don Quixote sees that thing, there might be trouble.