The "Just have think" youtube channel did an episode on VAWTs just last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcSnwW5v3f8

Vawts are mechnically quite simple and compact. You can put them just about anywhere. And they can operate even at low wind speeds, regardless of where the wind comes from.

There's a company experimenting with these along highways to get energy from vehicles driving by. The idea here is to simply wrap them around existing street lights. Not a lot of energy per turbine obviously but it adds up if you do it along a few miles of highway. And they are cheap, small, lightweight, and easy to install.