Smartphone Charging

• Smartphones are becoming capable of accomplishing more tasks each day. And with added strain, comes a decreased battery life. However, Dutch designer Tjeerd Veenhoven has developed a prototype wind-powered battery charger for his Apple iPhone. It's called the iFan and it slides right onto the iPhone. It's equipped with fan blades that capture energy from the wind, which thereby work to charge the phone. Veenhoven recommends attaching the phone to a bike or holding it out a moving car's window to accelerate charging. He says, as of 2010, that the iFan takes about six hours to completely charge the phone.
  
  

Portable Wind Turbine

• Like the iFan project, Gotwind's wind charger prototype uses wind to power small electronics. However, this wind charger is able to recharge the batteries of cell phones in one to two hours. That's because, while still portable, it's a bit bigger than the iFan wind turbine: The horizontal axis wind turbine has a propeller diameter of 30 centimeters. It can be attached to the tops of things like tents to ensure that it's receiving enough wind to properly work.
  
  

Electronics Charging

• The HYmini is a versatile, hand-held portable electronics charger that uses wind energy to recharge batteries. According to Gizmag (gismag.com), it recharges most five volt appliances, such as MP3 players, digital cameras and PDA's (personal digital assistants). Although it can be charged by plugging it into the wall, it's also equipped with a wind generator that will charge the device when in windy conditions, or when it's clipped to you and you're running or outside skiing, for example. It can then plug into an electronics device and charge it. Unlike several wind powered battery projects, however, the HYmini is one that is commercially available.
  
  

Wind Cars

• There's wind powered battery charger projects that deal with small, consumer electronics appliances, and then there's projects that deal with cars. For example, designer Edward Deets has conceived a vehicle that uses a rooftop wind turbine to charge an electric vehicle battery, which thereby powers the vehicle. According to Green Patent Blog, as of 2008, the idea might have some traction. The site reported that Ford Motor Company was looking at the design for possible integration into future vehicles.