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" A year ago, Shawn Frayne won a Breakthrough Award for his Humdinger Windbelt. When air passes over the device&amp;#039;s tiny ribbon-like vane, the fluttering vibration converts into a small amount of electricity. It was a novel approach to wind power, with the potential for a wider range of applications than a traditional turbine because of its compact profile.  At a reception on Wednesday for the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards, Frayne proved what a difference 12 months can make. The current generation of his Windbelt technology is 100 times more efficient than the original, capable of producing 3 to 10 watts of power.  The demonstration unit that Frayne pulled out of his backpack had to be plucked like a guitar string to power an LED light\u2014the system needs to be fully braced, with the vane pulled taut, for a proper demonstration\u2014but he says that the Windbelt costs $2 per watt, which is some 3 to 4 times cheaper than most solar power, and edging closer to the average cost of coal. &amp;quot;Solar people always talk about $1.50 per watt as the sweet spot,&amp;quot; says Frayne. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s where you become competitive with nonrenewable sources. We got to $2 in a year. Who knows where we&amp;#039;ll be a year from now.&amp;quot;  Frayne&amp;#039;s Honolulu-based start-up, Humdinger Wind Energy, is currently testing Windbelt installations in Guatemala, using 1-meter-long vanes, as well as a more experimental 10-meter-long version. &amp;quot;Maybe that will bring the cost down tenfold,&amp;quot; Frayne says. &amp;quot;We don&amp;#039;t know, but it&amp;#039;s worth trying.&amp;quot;  A single 1-meter Windbelt can charge multiple cellphones at once, or provide LED lighting to people in the developing world, where electrical grids are limited in reach and prone to constant blackouts. In theory, a series of 1-meter windbelts, chained together like cells in a larger array, could eventually be used for traditional large-scale power generation. But a &amp;quot;micro&amp;quot; version of the wind-harvesting generator\u2014which Frayne also pulled out of his backpack\u2014with a smaller, finger-length ribbon, could serve as a permanent, renewable power source for energy-sipping wireless devices, such as stress sensors in bridges or temperature sensors in commercial HVAC systems.  Frayne says that once the company finds industrial partners, the micro Windbelt could be deployed in 6 months to a year, while the 1-meter generator would take 18 to 24 months. And although Humdinger hopes to start peppering the entire world with fluttering vanes, the prospect of providing poor nations with off-the-grid, renewable electricity is why Frayne originally started this research. &amp;quot;The developing world is at the leading edge of the world&amp;#039;s problems,&amp;quot; says Frayne. &amp;quot;It needs renewable power to survive right now. And pretty soon, everyone will.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a3681/4287795/>