Let's have a look at the swept area.

On a wind turbine, the swept area refers to the circle created by the blades as they rotate. It's essentially the area of wind that the turbine can capture and convert into energy.

Swept area is crucial for wind turbine output. The larger the swept area, the more wind the turbine can collect and potentially convert into electricity. Imagine a bucket catching rain; the wider the bucket - the more water caught.

The Wind Catcher is currently rated with a peak performance of 200W at 5.5m/s, so why would it outperform smaller turbines that are rated at 400W or even 600W?

The answer actually lies in the previous section. The average wind speed is key! On a moderately windy day, your hat might fly off, and your tiny turbine produces a decent amount of energy, but then towards twilight the weather gets a little calmer, and turns out to be rather pleasant to be outside. The little turbine barely moves, but The Wind Catcher keeps spinning. All night!

Now if we compare The Wind Catcher with a competitor in various winds, we get a good idea of how much wind is really needed to spin a wind turbine:

Between 5.5m/s and 15m/s The Wind Catcher will produce a steady 200W, whereas our competitor won't begin producing anything worthwhile until we're at 10-15 m/s or more. 

Sure the competitor will generate more power beyond 15m/s winds, but would you really want to go camping in that weather?

I'd have second thoughts leaving the house, and I certainly wouldn't pitch a tent!

In 24 hours with a gentle to moderate breeze, The Wind Catcher will have produced approximately 4500Wh. That's almost enough to keep your drinks cold in a 47W cooler for another four days, so put up some lights, charge your phones or make some smoothies, all the while you keep topping up those batteries!

It is actually much more useful to compare and understand energy production in Watt hours. We have an explainer just for that!

Why doesn't The Wind Catcher just spin faster then? Wouldn't it produce even more?

Well, yes! , but it would also make more noise.

It's not without reason or cause this limitation is in place. As we increase the length of the blades and thereby the swept area, we also increase the stress on everything else. The lines, the tower, the turbine and the ground anchors. This could potentially be remedied by building it with different materials, but this would make it heavier and much, much more expensive.

So to keep The Wind Catcher at a steady 135 rpm (revolutions per minute), it's equipped with a pitch system, that turns the blades along their own axes.

This is a common feature in most large wind turbines, but basically unheard of in this size and price range.

We’ve spent countless engineering hours to perfect the pitching system. It’s incredibly quick and even if the power is cut, the blades will turn up in the wind, slowing or even stopping the turbine automatically. 

At ground level, hence the name, The Wind Catcher comes with a small yet important piece of hardware:

The Ground Station is a DC/DC converter, it’s a clever piece of hardware, that can smooth out the varying energy in the wind and deliver smooth power to a multitude of things; it can be set to charge any type of battery, lead based or lithium based, and the power output can be limited and the voltage can be programmatically controlled. 

It gets even crazier than this; we can also charge power stations by "tricking" power stations into thinking there's a solar panel connected. We call this solar emulation technology.

Power stations aren't equipped with the necessary software to accept the fluctuating currents that a wind turbine generates, so The Ground Station is buil with an array of capacitors to store up to one seconds' charge and release it into the power station, as if it was a solar panel.

Something something MPPT and converting excess energy into heat, and then losing potential electricity.

No other wind turbine comes with a DC/DC converter capable of handling all types of systems. You can use Wind Catcher to safely charge batteries.

Let's talk a little bit about the development of The Wind Catcher, the materials and why that makes it so groundbreaking:

First of all, the name KiteX might at a glance seem misplaced, but we aren't KiteX without reason.

The founders are avid kite surfers, and add a couple of engineering degrees; they understand how to harness the power of the wind as well as a well rounded understanding of lightweight materials!

The Wind Catcher weighs a meager 12 kg. It is made with carbon fiber and glass fiber rods, an array of 3d printed plastic parts and to make sure that everything is kept in place as a solid structure the whole thing is tightened up with very strong lines. Lines like the ones that keep you attached to your parachute!

Now being light is more important than simply being able to shove it on top of the car. 

Put simply; fewer materials means cheaper production and a lower price. 

If we factor in the peak energy output at 200W with the weight, we end up with 16.6W/kg. Compare that to a conventional wind turbine made with a lot of steel and a concrete foundation that produces a roughly 2W/kg.

Obviously The Wind Catcher doesn't produce as much energy as a 300m tall off-shore wind turbine, but part of the beauty is that it doesn't have to. If you regret putting it up next to your camp - just take it down and put it somewhere else! No concrete needs excavating afterwards!