Welsh wind

The Wales-based Quiet Revolution Group has recently received funding to help it build a new type of vertical axis wind turbine.

The company's so-called qr5 turbine, which can be amounted on properties in urban, commercial and industrial settings, costs around £25,000 and generates 6kW of power.

And now, thanks to the £1.2m funding package from Finance Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government, and HSBC, Quiet Revolution is set to produce up to 300 turbines per annum at its plant at Pembroke Dock.

'Our vertical axis turbine offers key advantages over conventional horizontal versions, including better performance in an urban setting, low noise levels and improved aesthetics, which are key drivers in a planning decision,' said Andrew Cox, Production Director at Quiet Revolution.

Quiet Revolution will employ around 30 people at Pembroke Dock where the new turbine will be built and distributed to customers throughout the world. 100 sites already have planning approval for the turbines - they include large retailers, government buildings, schools and universities across the UK.

The company has also announced that it is developing 'LED display turbines', in which light emitting diodes are embedded in each of the three blades of the wind turbine. These fire in sequence as the blades rotate and using the persistence of vision in the eye, paint a full colour video image that appears to hang in the air.