For $550, Raymond Green, an 89-year-old California resident, built a bird-friendly wind turbine.

Even though capturing wind energy doesn't kill as many birds as wind haters want you to think, a California military veteran decided to give wind turbines a different design for the birds. This new blade-less design is called the Catching Wind Power (CWP) Compressed Air Enclosed Wind Turbine. (It probably needs a shorter name.) The wind sock and compression cone allow for a quiet design that doesn't have to reach as high into the air. Even though this sounds great, Raymond Green has to perfect the model before people are going to have little wind catchers in their backyard. He is working with a New Jersey-based company to refine the creation.

For testing, Green straps the turbine to his truck.

While large wind turbines already exist and they don't kill birds like you would think. I like that this guy is thinking outside the box to solve our energy problems. If we don't try, we won't succeed. But he doesn't need to worry so much about birds. Our own cats and clean windows kill more than turbines right now.

So, more and more of the regular turbines are going up every day, and my brother, @Skyeward10, is out in California right now study up with GE on how to fix and maintain turbines. He can probably tell you way more about them than I ever could.

If you know of any other nifty green energy solutions let me know. I find them all pretty fascinating. Even wind turbines hooked to the top of a truck. I look forward to seeing these in the future.

For fun. This is where my brother is working. Spearville, Kan.