THE winners of this year's James Dyson Award are Nicolas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani, from Chile and Kenya respectively, for creating a new type of turbine to harness wind in our cities.

The award for students and recent graduates of engineering and design is made by James Dyson, who has his company headquarters in Malmesbury.

The two winners were studying International Innovation MSc together at Lancaster University and created the O-Wind Turbine to tap the power of wind in urban spaces.

Traditional wind turbines only capture wind travelling in one direction, which means they are very inefficient in cities where the wind is unpredictable and multi directional.

Sir James Dyson said: “Design something that solves a problem is an intentionally broad brief. It invites talented, young inventors to do more than just identify real problems. It empowers them to use their ingenuity to develop inventive solutions. O-Wind Turbine does exactly that. It takes the enormous challenge of producing renewable energy and using geometry it can harness energy in places where we’ve scarcely been looking – cities. It’s an ingenious concept.”

Nicolas Orellana first became interested in the challenge of multi directional wind after studying NASA’s Mars Tumbleweed Rover. By exploring the limitations of the Tumbleweed, Nicolas’s three-dimensional wind turbine technology was born. Nicolas and his fellow student Yaseen Noorani soon identified how cities could use this technology to harness energy to produce electricity.

The O-Wind Turbine is a 25cm sphere with vents that sits on a fixed axis and spins when wind hits it from any direction. When wind energy turns the device, gears drive a generator which converts the power of the wind into electricity.

Nicolas and Yaseen hope their new turbine will be installed on large structures such as the side of a building, or balcony, where wind speeds are at their highest.

Nicolas Orellana: “Our belief is that by making it easier to generate green energy, people will be encouraged to play a bigger own role in conserving our planet. Winning the international James Dyson Award has validated our concept. The attention we’ve received so far has been humbling and given us the confidence to see the development of this concept as a future career. Already we are in discussions with investors and we hope to secure a deal in the coming months.”