The Loopwing Personal Wind Turbine

This loopy looking item is a striking wind turbine design with some interesting features. A Japanese company is offering this small-scale wind turbine that touts an amazingly low 1.6m/sec (3.5 mph) minimum generation speed (compared with 8-11 mph for many turbines.)
The company claims a number of benefits for the Loopwing turbine attributed to the unusual configuration of the blades. Because there are no blade tips, the Loopwing doesn't have tip vortex effects, and is therefore much quieter. This also reduces vibration, which helps with both noise and extending the life of the turbine and generator. The blade configuration is also responsible for its low start speed.
Check out this awesome broken-english press material:

People witnessing a test model in operation gave high evaluation saying that there is no noise at all. The unique-shaped blade has self-stalling capability and it can avoid over-speeding. Loopwing’s rotation has globular trajectory and it can deflect smoothly even in gust, for example in a place on the roof of a building where the strong wind blows.There you have it...it's all about the globular trajectory avoiding over-speeding.

The Loopwing turbine appears to making the rounds of Japanese trade shows, and they have secured a US patent. So it's possible that it will be coming, but as yet there doesn't seem to be a North American distributor. Via: Metaeffi