My Clean Break feature this week is a story about a Toronto company called WhalePower Corp. that has designed a new type of wind-turbine blade that dramatically improves turbine efficiency. What’s unique about the design is that it mimics the aerodynamic feature of a humpback whale’s flipper, which has bumps or “tubercles” along its leading edge. Scientists have found that the tubercles reduce the drag and increase the lift on the flipper, having the effect of delaying stall. Earlier studies have attempted to apply this principle to airplane wings and rudders on boats, but WhalePower is adapting it to blades for wind turbines, fans — essentially anything with a rotating blade that moves through air or fluid. The co-founders of WhalePower claim their blade captures more of the wind’s energy at lower speeds where conventional turbines tend to stall. For example, a turbine equipped with WhalePower blades could produce the same amount of electricity from 5 metre-per-second winds as a conventional turbine tends to produce with winds blowing at 8 metres per second. This means the humpback-designed turbines could allow wind farms to produce more kilowatt-hours a year, improving the business case for wind farms.

The big question is: Even if this is a superior blade design, would the industry be willing to change? Given turbine manufacturers are already having a tough time keeping up with demand, there’s not much incentive in radically changing the design of their product for the benefit of customers. And while WhalePower says it has a way to retrofit existing turbine blades, there’s the question of voiding the warranty — something most wind-farm operators are reluctant to do.

All that said, it’s a neat company that’s bound to attract further attention from investors and the media. And the approach could represent a way for a newcomer to the wind-turbine manufacturing market to distinguish itself from the competitive pack.

My podcast this week is with Gordon Shields, executive director of the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition, which is promoting the idea of homes that produce just as much energy as they consume — i.e. keeping their overall energy footprint at zero. This is an extremely interesting area, one that doesn’t get much coverage but which represents an important long-term goal as we try to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector. So far we’ve only seen pilot demonstrations and a target of 1,500 net-zero homes in Canada, but over time the idea is to develop standards that make the construction of sustainable net-zero homes part of mainstream homebuilding.

A bunch of things need to happen over time to make this work. Home builders need to buy in. Banks need to buy in and offer “green” mortgages. The real estate industry needs to become educated and search capability on the MLS system needs to expand to include “green” home features such as annual energy consumption and use of renewables such as solar or geothermal. This contributes to the idea that home energy efficiency and renewables add resale value to a home, similar to adding a new bathroom or putting in a new kitchen with granite countertops. (Actually, it’s ridiculous that we place more value on that granite countertop than the solar thermal system that provides your hot water). Once the resale value is calculated, purchasing a geoexchange or solar PV system becomes more affordable — not just because it lowers your homes energy costs, but because you’ll recoup some or all of that investment in the resale of the home.

The good news is that more and more homebuyers are considering the operating cost of a home and factoring that into their purchasing decisions. Given that energy costs represent a majority of those operating costs, it’s only a matter of time — sooner, let’s hope, rather than later — that homebuyers start demanding EnergyStar rated homes and renewable systems, and start penalizing those homes that fail to meet these standards.

On the real estate front, I have to say I’m encouraged that there are a few agents trying to make change in this regard. One agent from London, Ontario, has started a grassroots e-mail campaign hoping to create awareness amongst his peers and put pressure on local real estate boards to embrace the greening of the real estate industry.