Italian micro-wind power is about to make the leap. GEVI Wind, the startup founded by three young engineers from Pisa, has raised 2,7 million euros to bring vertical wind turbines with integrated artificial intelligence to the market.
It's not just a matter of compact dimensions (3 meters high, 5,4 meters in diameter): here, the blades self-adjust every hundredth of a second by analyzing the wind in real time. The system produces up to 60% more energy than the best traditional vertical turbines, reducing structural stress by 80%. It operates at 2,5 meters per second of wind, is as quiet as a whisper from 10 meters away, and can be installed on rooftops, industrial warehouses, or local microgrids.
When the turbine becomes intelligent
Most vertical wind turbines on the market have a structural problem: they work well in moderate, steady winds, but collapse in gusts. The reason is simple: The blades have a fixed angle that cannot adapt to sudden changes in airflowWhen a strong gust arrives, the angle between the flow and the blade increases sharply, creating vortices and structural loads that the blades cannot withstand. The result is a loss of efficiency, accelerated wear, and in some cases, breakage.
GEVI Wind has turned the problem around. Their turbine mounts a artificial intelligence-based control system which adjusts the blade angle in real time, every few milliseconds. The software continuously analyzes wind direction, speed, turbulence, and aerodynamic interactions between the blades. Then it decides: adjust the angle, optimize performance, and protect the structure. It's not a preprogrammed mechanism. It's a system that learns..
As he explained Emanuele Luzzati, founder and CEO of GEVI Wind, in an interview with HDblog:
“Thanks to AI, the turbine behaves like a living organism: it senses the wind, reacts and adapts, transforming what was previously wasted energy into energy.”
The advantage is twofold: more energy captured when the wind is favorable, less damage when it becomes hostile.
Italian micro-wind power: the numbers that count
The performances declared by GEVI Wind are not marginal. We are talking about a 60% increase in annual energy production compared to the best vertical turbines (VAWT) currently on the market. At the same time, active blade control reduces structural loads during high winds by up to 80%. This means the turbine lasts longer, breaks less, and costs less to maintain.
The turbine is compact: three meters tall, with a 5,4-meter diameter rotor. It starts up in winds of 2,5 meters per second (about 9 km/h), a speed that is the norm in many urban areas. At cruising speed, it produces between 3 and 5 kilowatts of electrical power, enough to cover the needs of a home or supplement the energy of an industrial warehouse. And it does all this. in silence: at ten meters away it emits less than 38 decibels, about the noise you can hear in a good old library.
From Pisa to Europe
The story of GEVI Wind begins in 2021, when three aerospace and robotics engineering students from theUniversity of Pisa They built a prototype 30-watt vertical-axis wind turbine with active blade pitch control. The project won first prize in the Human Knowledge Lab, organized by Eni joule in February 2022. The acceleration programs start from there: Eni Energizer, PoliHub, and finally ZERO, the cleantech accelerator of the National Accelerator Network of CDP Venture Capital.
In 2022 officially founded the startup. Today, GEVI Wind has a team of about ten people, with research and development headquarters in Pisa and sales offices in Rome. The recently closed €2,7 million seed round was led by 360 funds (through the Poli360 fund) and CDP Venture Capital, with the involvement of the Accelerators Fund, the MiSE Co-Investment Fund, and the ToscanaNext Fund. The British investment firm NextSTEP One also participated.
The funds will be used for product industrialization: launching mass production of the turbines, enhancing the AI control system, and developing new versions adapted to specific contexts. The goal is to bring intelligent micro-wind turbines to places where photovoltaic and traditional wind power cannot reach: urban areas, zones with irregular winds, and installations on existing buildings.
The micro wind power that was missing
The micro-wind sector in Italy has always been somewhat of a poor relation of renewables. Unclear regulations, cultural prejudices (many consider turbines an “eyesore”), high costs and fluctuating performance have held back adoption. horizontal turbines Traditional turbines are bulky, noisy, and require strong, constant winds. Existing vertical turbines were more compact but less efficient.
GEVI Wind offers a different solution. The turbine is modular, distributed, and silent. It can be installed without a crane, requires little maintenance, and integrates with existing photovoltaic systems (using existing inverters and batteries). It also works at night, when the photovoltaic system is off, and on cloudy days when the panels produce little. It's a complement, not an alternative.
Un recent study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne demonstrated that applying machine learning algorithms to vertical turbines can improve their efficiency by up to 200%, while reducing vibrations by 70%. The work, published in Nature Communications., confirms that the direction taken by GEVI Wind is not only promising: it is scientifically sound.
What really changes
The renewable energy market in Italy is dominated by photovoltaic. Traditional wind power works well in the South and on the islands, but requires large spaces and complex permits. Smart micro-wind power opens up a new space: distributed energy, produced locally, that can be integrated into urban and industrial settings. There's no need to build hundreds of megawatt wind farms. A roof, a warehouse, or a neighborhood microgrid is all it takes.
Giuseppe Imburgia, general manager of GEVI Wind, said it clearly:
“Thanks to this round, GEVI will be able to structure itself to increase production volumes and satisfy the growing market interest in its technology, in a context where distributed energy production is increasingly a valid alternative to scaled energy production.”
The challenge now is to move from the technology validation phase to industrial production. The first pilot plants are currently being tested. The goal for 2025-2026 is to achieve stable series production and begin commercialization on a European scale. If the stated figures are confirmed in the field, smart micro-wind turbines could finally emerge from their niche and become a viable option for businesses, condominiums, and energy communities.
The turbines that learn from the wind are here, they're Italian, and they're about to go into production. The market will do the rest.
