Unalaska, AK – The windy fall weather is providing electricity to some community members. Two new vertical wind turbines were recently installed in Unalaska. The vertical helix-shaped blades are designed to catch wind in all directions. Unlike horizontal turbines, they don't require motors that can break or wear out to reorient them for rapidly changing wind directions.

Helix Wind CEO Ian Gardner explained that wind can even be angled up or down and the unit will still produce power. "Because the blades spin on a vertical axis, whatever direction the wind comes from, it catches the blade scoops. With a propeller style unit it has to come from the front of the blades. If it comes in from any other angle, the blades won't spin. That's why the helix unit, because it takes it from every direction, is more beneficial."

Local resident Josh Williams said that's why he and Lilia Howard chose to install that design on their property on the back side of Haystack. If the wind direction changes a lot, "it might slow it down a little bit," he said. "But then it gets going again it's really working well."

The unit is also specifically designed for high wind areas. That means it takes more wind for it to start producing energy, but it can survive higher speeds as well.

"With the drag bucket design like the Helix, the speed of the blade is actually less or equal to the speed of the wind, which means that it can survive and keep producing in the very high wind speeds," Gardner said. "So the Helix, for example, will keep producing electricity up to 100 mph and will survive up to 150 mph whereas a tradition lift blade design, like a propeller style unit, would have to shut down at 40 or 50 mph."

Williams said that promise is holding true so far. During the last storm, when the island experienced 80 mph gusts, his turbine never had to put on its internal brakes and it produced about 26 kilowatts of power. That's almost enough to power his house and his rental unit for a day. He's currently installing a double meter system in his house that will show how much power he's producing, how much he's using, and how much he's putting back into the city's grid. He's also working on a way to use the turbine to heat water for his in-floor heating system.

"We're gonna try to come up with something where we can have electric hot water and use the turbine to, of course, heat the hot water and then use the boiler as a secondary source, say, if we don't have enough wind that day the boiler will kick on."

The unit cost the couple about $18,000, but Williams did all of his own construction work. It rises 28 feet into the air and produces very little sound. Residents have likened the spinning blades to falling water or spinning window decorations. Gardner said the company specifically designed the unit for aesthetics.

The Haystack turbine was down for a couple of weeks because Willams broke a part, not because it malfunctioned in any way. "It was operator error," he said.

Marty Wech installed a similar unit from the same company on Nirvana. He said he's learned that where you place your unit makes a huge difference. Mount Newhall usually blocks winds from the east, though he said even that was overcome in the last storm. Wech said his unit has an alignment problem and he will be taking it down, but the company is sending out a replacement at their own expense.

Willams suggested that community members wait to buy their own units until he and Wech test them for a longer period, but he will help people install them if they want.

The Helix Wind Company started in 2006 and has been shipping units for one year. They've already sold 150 turbines their entire production so far. They are in the process of purchasing two other wind turbine companies in order to offer other styles for other wind types.

If you want to keep track of the local wind speeds and other weather conditions, you can now monitor them in real time on the internet. Weatherbug.com recently installed weather monitors at the high school. Type in the Unalaska zip code at the weatherbug.com website and see how the wind speed and direction changes by the minute, at least downtown.