The second phase of GE’s ecomagination challenge “Powering Your Home” closed on March 15. The panels of judges will spend the next few weeks sorting through the 809 proposed ideas to determine which should win the coveted start-up money to get their proposals off the ground and connected with investors. Among those, the most commented upon idea is a roof-mounted home-power system that uses both photovoltaics and a wind turbine.

The device, called the SmartWind RoofBlaster, is designed to cap the ridge of a roof and run the length of the roof. It uses a horizontal wind-turbine, which looks like the blades of a combine harvester, topped with a concentrated photovoltaic system that can also collect solar thermal heat for hot-water or heating and cooling a home. The RoofBlaster allows both the solar and wind devices to use the same inverter to help reduce costs as well.

Teams led by Shawn Buckley and James Post, both of whom have other entries in the incubator contest, developed the device. “We are quite confident that we will successfully close this first financing round,” Post said.

The 1.8 kilowatt wind turbine included in the RoofBlaster would be complimented by a 2 foot-wide solar collector.

“Using Fresnel mirrors, the sunlight is concentrated on an amount of silicon that is only 5 percent of the silicon required by a traditional solar PV panel with the same output,” according to a press release put out by the concept developers.

The solar aspect is being designed to match the design of the 7 foot, 4 inch-long wind turbine. In addition to providing electricity, it will also have a solar thermal component, which will actually help cool down the photovoltaics.

“In an ‘average’ situation, the solar contribution would be around 35 percent of the total, in addition to the hot water provided,” Post said.

Already they’ve lined up potential distributors in Europe and North America, according to Post. “They are the best concept-marketing people I know. Both have their own companies and are prepared to make a switch once we get financing.”

“We will build 25 of them and place them in different circumstances,” Post said. “The SmartWind inverter is able to measure the wind in addition to continuously measuring output performance.” The inverter’s ability to log data will allow the teams to test the device’s effectiveness.