Ok, I am no physicists, just an ecologist. I, like most of the population, worry about the environment and get exited when a new renewable energy system comes out.
I've fallen on this today,
http://www.flodesignwindturbine.org/
It's a new company, that came up with a radical new design on wind turbine. They've taken the anatomy of a jet engine turbine and made this new "prototype" wind turbine. There is a video showing how it works (here for the lazy http://www.flodesignwindturbine.org/turbine/index.php)
To me, it looks like a whole new leap in wind energy. I'd like the opinion of more people. As for wildlife concerns, I find it much better since it is small and much more compact and is more visible to a bird then a gigantic rotating blade that looks static from far but spins quite fast when you get close to it. I presume wildlife are less likely to fly into it.
Also, the fact that it is much more compact lets more be placed on small land size. The blades turn at a much more wide range of wind velocity's also.
I'll let you watch the video and see for your selves, no need for me to describe it entire. The length of the video is 5 minutes.
One thing they don't mention is the noise it makes, which from my experiences so far is the major plaint people have of the placement of wind turbines in their community. Also it is viewed as very ugly for many people. I will agree that its not a rolling plain to the ends of sight or beautiful lush vegetated mountain ranges, but we require energy and we need renewable energy, so some sacrifices must be made to sustain our way of living.