Humdinger Windbelt

As Llywelyn's comment on the group wall says, it is best to start with efficiency savings and look at what our needs really are before loading our roofs up with banks of power generators but I wanted to bring this up as I found it very interesting indeed.

I am interested in power generation systems that are sufficiently low tech to be able to be serviced and even made by a community without hard to find specialist help.
A few years ago I came across a presentation by Shawn Frayne at a 2007 Google Techtalk where he presented the Windbelt.

There are many different turbine systems out there but this was a very fresh and innovative way of looking at the problem of low tech cheap power from the wind.

The website has some interesting applications from conceptual large systems to small 20 year lifespan hand held devices.
http://www.humdingerwind.com/

I thought this different enough to warrant a dedicated discussion for replies and thoughts on this technology.