If you haven’t had time to follow along with everything this year, this is your chance to catch up - because wow, it’s been quite a year here at Harmony Turbines.
A lot of what we’ve done this year came from hitting walls and having to rethink solutions. One big example: generators. After testing a long list of off-the-shelf options and realizing none of them truly worked for our low-RPM turbine needs, we made the leap to design our own. It was a risk, but it paid off. In June, we shared a live reveal of our custom-built SAF (Simplified Axial Flux) generator - one of those moments where the hard work really paid off in a tangible way!
On the electronics side, we challenged a long-held assumption. Small wind turbines typically rely on charge controllers, but after testing off-the-shelf options—and even beginning to build our own - we realized we may not need one at all. Instead, our furling system (which opens and closes the scoops) can protect both the turbine AND the batteries. It’s unconventional, but it’s starting to come together as our furling algorithms continue to improve. Also our team moved to a STM32-based system this year and has been deep in the weeds refining the logic that controls how and when our scoops furl (begin to close).
We also spent a huge amount of time at our wind tunnel this year, chasing a question we honestly weren’t sure had a good answer: could a different scoop shape meaningfully improve performance? After a lot of testing, re-testing, refining and even improving the wind tunnel itself, we landed on a new design that looks genuinely promising. We’ve now built full-scale scoops and are in the process of installing them on our ALPHA 2 unit for real-world testing—it’s really quite exciting to see them coming together full-sized.
Speaking of ALPHA 2, we’ve begun building out our second ALPHA unit, which will let us do direct side-by-side comparisons between our newest design mentioned above and our current ALPHA 1 design from our rooftop install. Seeing how they perform in the real world is something we’ve been working toward for a long time.
And finally, BETA testing. This year, we identified our first BETA site—a local university planning to break ground in spring 2026 to prepare for installation. We’re also in early conversations with a second and even a 3rd potential site that all look quite promising.
Of course, none of this R&D comes cheap. Since we’re not in production yet, crowdfunding has been essential. Between our StartEngine raise and our current Wefunder campaign, we’ve raised over $500,000 here in 2025. That support has quite literally kept the doors open and the research moving forward—and we don’t take that lightly, we’re here because of your support. If you’re interested in being a part of this success, please consider investing: www.wefunder.com/HarmonyTurbines
It’s been a year full of progress, challenges, learning, and long days. We’re incredibly grateful for the support that’s made it possible—and we’re excited to keep building toward what comes next.
Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Chris & Cheryl and the Harmony Team