Shine Turbine review: portable wind power for phones and small devices
The Shine Turbine kit, starting at $399, arrives ready to use with the turbine, a stand, guy lines, pegs and cables, and includes a 3.7 V, 12,000 mAh internal battery. It delivers up to 40 watts of regulated 5 V DC output via USB ports, and the package is protected against over-voltage, under-voltage, temperature extremes and overloads.
Initial setup can be fiddly — especially in strong wind — and getting the guy lines placed correctly takes practice, though the unit becomes very robust once erected. The quickest setup I managed was about ten minutes; taking it down requires care to avoid tangling the lines for next time.
You can either charge the turbine’s internal battery and use that to top up devices, or attach a separate power bank. For base-camp use it makes sense to charge other power banks and keep the turbine’s reserve for still days, while using the turbine itself as a large power bank works for occasional on-the-move top-ups.