Sharp VAWT Generating Electricity

The Sharp style vertical axis wind turbine is shown generating a small amount of power in a very light breeze using a couple pulleys, a round belt, and a small stepper motor. It was able to light an LED even though the wind was around 1 m/s. It demonstrates the idea of using a large turbine and a small generator to get more consistent power from light wind. It isn't much, but it is available much of the time. The advantage of using the Sharp VAWT is that it has good low end torque to turn the generator without the need for all the material needed to build a Savonius VAWT of similar proportions in order to get high torque.