Swedish Energy Ball Changes Look and Feel of Small Wind Tech

This technology by Swedish company HomeEnergy has taken the web by storm over the past couple days.  The Energy Ball is an aberration in a small wind market that seems to be dominated by vertical axis, helical, miniature, and three-blade designs.  It takes the shape of a puffed up flounder -- with an orb of six blades and a fin to guide the orb towards the wind.  The Energy Ball is, of course, meant for small scale, decentralized energy generation.  As shown below, you could place it in the urban setting or plant several poles for multiple corporate installations. 

The design utilizes the Venturi Effect to create a turbine with lower relative noise, increased efficiency, and energy generation at lower start speeds.  HomeEnergy offers two sizes of the spherical turbine.  The 500 watt V100 is ~3 feet 7 inches and the 2500 watt V200 is ~6 feet 6 inches.  Also, based on today's Krona to U.S. Dollar conversion rate of 0.1508 and HomeEnergy's current price sheet, the Energy Ball sells for approximately the following price (without installation, I believe):

• V100 (without VAT): $3,607.00; (with VAT): $4,510.00.
• V200 (without VAT): $6,389.00; (with VAT); $7,987.00.

I guess the question is, though, when can we start manufacturing and selling the Energy Ball here in the U.S.?  San Francisco and New York are both trying to accelerate the use of small wind in their cities, and the NY Times just wrote an article discussing this trend.  We'll certainly keep you posted. 

Via Below the Clouds, FooZooDesign, + Inhabitat.