By Michael Franco | NEW ATLAS | October 17, 2025
Thanks to the development of new, lightweight rotors, engineers in Germany have created a small wind turbine that excels at efficiency, even when breezes aren’t blowing strongly. The development is a big step toward efficient green home power generation.
The turbines were developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research along with the BBF Group, a construction and engineering firm in the Berlin and Brandenburg region. The efficiency boost came from designing the rotors to be hollow instead of filled with foam, as is the case with most wind turbine blades.
To create them, the researchers first used 3D printing to create molds for each half of a rotor. Then, using an automated-fiber-placement system, composite fiber strips are laid down in the molds with millimeter precision, creating a laminate structure. Once the two sides are fused together, their structure allows them to withstand strong winds.
