Cool Future Technologies

June 21 -- Hello World’s Ashlee Vance paid a recent visit to Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik to see the next part of the green energy story. He found a start-up called Icewind that is building a new type of funky wind turbine designed to perform well in low-wind conditions but also to slow itself down in high-winds, preventing it from catching on fire or ripping apart.

"This type of turbine is called a Savonius vertical axis wind turbine. Technically it's an old technology - it dates back to the Persian empire or something. We have taken this base design and brought it to the modern age with modern materials, carbon fibre and stainless steel. 

We've made it really really strong, we've engineered and cut the blades so that the turbine never goes on overspin. Our system is really really simple so we can keep the price down but it also can take really really harsh weather..."