The UGE-4K wind turbine of the Sanya Skypump rotates almost silently around its vertical pole axis, at less than 38 decibels at a rated wind speed of 12m/s (26 miles per hour) and can survive windspeeds of 123 mph.

The world's first wind powered electric vehicle recharging station has been opened near Barcelona in Spain.  Offering a completely green solution to recharging electric cars and other vehicles,the station uses a combination of an innovative 4 kilowatt vertical wind turbine,called UGE-4K, made by Urban Green Energy and a charging unit known as Durastation from General Electric.  These are integrated as a single unit, with all of the electrical systems in the turbine's tower itself.

What a future airborne wind turbine may look like

Although offshore wind turbines have the advantage of not having to take up valuable dry-land resources (as Kevin Costner may say in Waterworld), one the main disadvantages of wind turbines at sea level (or, to be accurate at a few meters above sea level taking into consideration their tower structures) is the relatively low power of the wind that turns them.   It's a fact of nature that as you go further upwards into the sky the speed of the wind increases.  At a height of 610 metres (2,000 feet) the speed of the wind is between 2 and 3 times the velocity at ground level.  

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