Aeromine Technologies has developed a rooftop bladeless wind energy unit; they claim that it provides the same amount of power as up to 16 solar panels
Aeromine Technologies says its motionless system, which was validated through joint research with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and Texas Tech University, easily installs on the edge of a building and can generate up to 50% more energy at the same cost as rooftop solar.
It’s designed to sit on buildings with flat roofs such as warehouses and distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, office buildings, multi-family residential developments, and big box retail.
Science fiction writers introduced readers to this idea in the 1890's. In A Journey In Other Worlds, John Jacob Astor IV wrote about "rooftop windmills:"
Sometimes a man has a windmill on his roof for light and heat; then, the harder the wintry blasts may blow the brighter and warmer becomes the house, the current passing through a storage battery to make it more steady.
Cyborg Eye Flashlight Lights Up The Room
'Foyle pressed a tooth with his tongue and the peripheral cells of his retina were excited into emitting a soft light.' - Alfred Bester, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
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Orion's 'Skip-to-M'Lou' Entry
'A lightning pilot possibly could land that tin toy without power and still walk away from it provided he had the skill to play Skip-to-M’Lou in and out of the atmosphere...'