This wind turbine can fold into your backpack and charge your laptop

Scientists have 3D-printed a wind turbine that’s small and light enough to fit into a backpack.

Called AirEnergy3D, the turbine can plug directly into a laptop or phone to charge it with renewable energy, or can feed electricity back into a household power system, as Adele Peters reports for Fast Company. 

The turbine is designed to be portable so that it can be carried around by users, or moved around a house depending on where the windiest spot is. Its creators at Poland-based company Omni3D are now raising funds on Kickstarter for the device.

The vertical-shape of the turbine is designed to capture as much energy as possible from the relatively low wind speeds that come through city roofs and backyards, Peters explains. The blade shape is still being refined, but the turbine can already power a lightbulb, and with the Kickstarter funding the team is working towards a design that will be able to produce 300 watts, which is enough to charge computers and other electronic devices.

Impressively, the company is going to make all the plans for the 3D-printed turbine open source, so that others can customise the blades or continue to improve their design. "We want to make it as easy to develop upon the original project," Kamil Dziadkiewicz, an engineer from Omni3D, told Fast Company. "Thanks to 3D printing, everybody as a community can experiment and prototype better solutions for the machine."

The final kit is projected to cost users around US$350, and users assemble it themselves from some electronics and parts that they can 3D print. DIY lovers can also use their own parts and make it from scratch using the open source plans.

And for every US$4,000 (£2,500) pledged, Omni3d will send one of the constructed wind turbines to off-the-grid African villages, to help generate electricity where it’s needed most. The device can also be used in natural disaster situations in regions where solar power may not be the most efficient option.

So, you'll soon have no excuse for leaving home without renewable energy again. Check out theKickstarter campaign video below: