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New Wind Wind Turbine Generates Electricity Electricity Without Without Rotating Blades May 18, 2015 | by Caroline Reid
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POPULAR POSTS photo credit: Bladeless wind turbine by Vortex
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This new wind turbine wobbles elegantly in the wind, generating electricity without rotating blades. “It looks like asparagus,” says David Suriol, Suriol, one of the founders. A Spanish company called Vortex Bladeless Bladeless has produced a wind turbine that takes advantage of the vortices produced when wind moves around an obstacle. If you put any object in the path of the wind, it will create an undulating vortex behind the barrier. This is a problem that has plagued engineers for years: bridges have fallen due fallen due to wind eddies. Vortex Bladeless engineers have designed their turbine to take advantage of this vortex. The thin, cone-shaped turbine is made of carbon fiber and fiberglass with the motor at the bottom instead of the top (like traditional turbines) to improve sturdiness. The design ensures that the wind's vortex spins synchronously along the entire cone. “The swirls have to work together to achieve good performance,” Villarreal explains explains.. There is also a ring of magnets at the base of the cone that give the rotations a boost regardless of wind speed.
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There are many advantages to the new Vortex design: It is cheaper to manufacture than current pinwheel turbines. Maintenance prices are also lower because there is no friction from mechanically moving parts (e.g., the blades on a traditional turbine), which reduces the need for oiling and bolt replacement. It is completely silent and birds can fly around them safely (though it has yet to be announced whether the turbine is nest-proof.) New wind technology, however, always receives some skepticism: Most wind-harvesting technologies only work at a fraction of their most efficient output. Wind turbines need smooth, laminar airflow; the kind you only really find at about 100 meters (328 feet) above the ground. The wind that we know and love to hate is turbulent, messy and generally no good for wind turbines. Vortex claims that their wind turbine can adapt to any wind speed with the assistance of the magnets in its core; however, the details on how this actually works are frustratingly hard to come by. The Vortex device has been computationally modeled, tested in a wind tunnel, and there are prototypes out in the open, but details on tests carried out by the company or independent labs are currently scant. It is also not the first wind turbine to take advantage of oscillatory technology. Researchers in the ' 80s found that the swirling oscillations were too random for reliable power generation, and the speed of oscillations put a lot of stress on the structure and caused it to break down unexpectedly. The idea hasn't been terribly successful in the past, so it will be interesting to see how Vortex Bladeless tackles these challenges. While this invention might not revolutionize Earth's renewable power sources just yet, it's still exciting to see what designers are creating.
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67 Comments
Pepijn
1
•
"There is also a ring of magnets at the base of the cone that give the rotations a "-
. . pseudoscience. Could you elaborate on this? Is there actually a good reason for these magnets, for instance reducing friction or something like that? •
Tomasz Szewczyk
•
Its called VOrtex Shedding Mr Online degree fakero Inigineeero •
David Ebert
•
Did you know that any second-hand electric motor turned backwards is a generator? You can set up your own generation system with second hand gear using any kinetic energy source. Try digging a millrace on that stream by your house, make a paddle to harness the wind in that tall tree in your yard, put a generator on an exercise bike to run a TV...use your imagination. I know a guy who figured out an electric bike for himself, that uses little electric motors to charge the battery when he's going down hill or pedaling. He never has to separately charge the battery, and always has extra power when he gets tired. He started out by using two old-fashioned headlight generators, but found some small motors that worked better. This is fun stuff. •
backprop
•
Well, not just 'any' motor. A typical A/C motor won't, for example. So, don't ust go out and spin any old motor and hope electricity comes out! •
Guy C
•
Sounds great. Now I just need to divert a watercourse to run near enough to where I live... :-D •
1337
•
Ask him to share on a DIY tutorial website please. •
richardstarr
•
I've seen this type of thing before. It will be nice if it actually is more efficient this time. Efficiency meaning power gathered using the same acreage on the ground. I don't care if you use 5 of them in the space of one traditional device, especially if the maintenance costs really are that low. •
Gord Bestwick
•
I'll be curious as to the efficiency vs cost vs traditional windmills. I think these will only take off if they offer some kind of efficiency. •
mohawk16
•
When achieved, commercially viable nuclear fusion will solve the world's energy & pollution problems. •
Cedrik S. Charette
•
find a way to capture Lightning Energy in a battery,then this will be useless ^_^ the one who will do this will be the next Bill Gates lol •
Greby-sama
•
Actually there's... Just that a lighting is too short to charge a lamp for half a hour... •
iksnilol
•
Eh, lightning has much more energy than that. •
HL
•
Key word: in a battery. •
lord-of-darkness
•
why would you want a battery that powers a lamp for half an hour? •
Desmond Kenpachi Knowles •
Are you telling me that y ou think a lightning storm only has one lightning strike? Think multiple strikes to fill the battery or several batteries per storm. •
Stacey
•
You still have to find a way to catch all those lightning bolts. With how random and irregular lightning can be, even in areas with tall buildings with lightning rods, it's just really hard to catch them. Even the Empire State Building only gets hit about 25 times each year. The problem is that it'd be hugely expensive to have an area of lightning capturing devices, and you would have to cover huge amounts of area. It'd just be an enormous investment with very low return. •
lord-of-darkness •
Sounds very inefficient, and wasteful. I hope your batteries are rechargeable. If one bolt is equal to half an hour, a whole storm isn't going to make a difference. Better to harness the power of kid's laught from that Monster movie. •
Erlend Åshamar Eriksen •
One bolt is vastly superior to that, but harnessing the full energy of it will be very difficult, that's all. But again, the battery thing is a problem. If you find a different way to store the energy, however, we may be singing a different tune. If you find a kinetic near-eternity-machine and use lightning to power it, it can store vast amounts of energy with only a small energy loss. We have had multiple such machines made in the past, some running for years, but they were all low-energy, which obviously makes it easier to keep up... If we could properly harness the power of lightning, we'd have a huge power source right there; however, it's horribly
difficult, and we need brilliant innovations to do that, not just rethinks of current ideas and principles. •
wl
•
How's that a turbine when it's obviously a baseball bat? •
Psycho Jedi
•
If we can have just one renewable source of energy that also doesn't kill wildlife, that would be awesome. •
Peter Collings
•
Domestic cats kill several hundred million birds per year in the US alone, tens of millions are killed flying into buildings. Compared to that, the relatively miniscule number of birds killed in turbine strikes is utterly irrelevant. •
Erlend Åshamar Eriksen
•
The problem lies with the kinds of birds that don't die to cats and flying into buildings, and are at a rather low population already. Specially in otherwise wild areas where domestic cats and buildings don't exist, windmills are a dangerous factor, when 1 windmill alone is capable of killing 10% of the local population, if your luck is bad. •
Rachel Terry
•
Geothermal.. •
Psycho Jedi
•
This one is hard to say, so far all it does is increase the risk of earthquakes, but say if someone were to get the bright idea of setting one up in Montana to feed off the massive amount of energy flowing from the super volcano beneath Yellowstone, they could either power the entire continent, or blow up half the country. For my take, I'd say the jury is out. •
Rye
•
Solar Power? •
Psycho Jedi
•
Solar Power barbecues birds in the air, sorry to say :-( •
Johannes Becker
•
That statement is highly misleading. Regular PV panels do no such thing. What you are referring to are parabolic thermal based installations intended for large-scale projects - maybe you could employ some kind of "scarecrow" method (annoying sound frequencies, optical, ...) to make birds avoid the area. It's not a general problem of solar, just of one very specific technology within solar. •
Desmond Kenpachi Knowles
•
Everyone has solar panels on their roofs. Not Giant solar thermal powerplants which do indeed kill birds. •
Dave
•
http://www.worldcrunch.com/tec... •
PretenderNX01
•
Large panels aren't the only way to get solar power. There was a kid, Aidan Dwyer, who created a "tree" using small panels set in a particular pattern called the Fibonacci sequence. No frying wildlife since the are small and at all different angles and no need to turn the one giant panel you have so they don't lose energy. In fact they are more efficient over all. •
Psycho Jedi
•
Cool beans, is it the same tree that also acts as a water purifier and wifi hotspot? I vaguely remember reading an article about that a few months back. •
Darrin Woodard
•
ICYMI - They have solar power for homes that doesn't fry birds. Stop waiting for somebody else to solve your problems. Visit your local hardware store and start producing instead of being a leech. •
Psycho Jedi
•
Thanks, Dad. •
Darrin Woodard
•
Ahh that moment when your problems are solved, but your immature attitude only vocalizes criticism. You are what we call a curmudgeon. - Dad •
Psycho Jedi
•
Curmudgeon, huh? I do believe you just leveled up to a Grandpa. •
John Green
•
Depends what type of solar you're talking about. Traditional, stand-alone solar panels don't fry birds, but the solar arrays that direct light to a central point to superheat water, of course, can easily generate enough heat to kill birds •
Psycho Jedi
•
It's an issue we'll robabl solve eventuall
we ust need
more efficient solar panels that collect all the energy that hits them, instead of reflecting most of it back at our feathery friends. That or put all solar panels in space and beam the energy back to earth via microwaves. •
Enio Moura
•
You know, only large solar power plants can kill birds, because they use focused mirrors, not solar panels. Solar panels are more of a personal use thing and they can't kill birds anymore than the sun itself can. •
Psycho Jedi
•
Gotcha, but is there really a need to nitpick? Were you at all confused about what I was getting at? •
Enio Moura
•
Yes, you was talking about solar panels and talking about how much they reflect sunlight, to the point of killing birds. Teeechnically they do reflect sunlight, but that's less sunlight that made it's way to them in the first place. •
Psycho Jedi
•
I said Solar Power kills birds, I used the word solar panels in another post in reference to a need to better the technology, I'll just use the phrase Solar Cells from now on, would that make you happy? •
Enio Moura
•
Solar power was good and spot on haha By the way, microwave beamed power is kind of a deadly weapon too, so there's that. •
Psycho Jedi
•
Yeah, it's likely to come with its own set of issues, we're screwed pretty much every way we turn, here's hoping someone figures out cold fusion. •
Justin C Corcoran
•
for cold fusion to reach new horizons we need to be able to formulate extremely efficient composite materials of room temp superconductors. •
MrJC22173
•
They are called photovoltaic cells, and generate electricity from light impact, also there are magnifying ones. •
Barty Lobethal
•
Bullshit. •
•
Google it, you'll get over 2 million results. •
Guilherme Antonini
•
Did you actually open the results? SBSP Is just a concept yet, due to cost. http://www.spaceenergy.com/SBS... •
Justin Anderson
•
Sadly its true, when california opened up their giant solar farm 150 birds died from being scorched alive •
Daniel Schealler
•
Solar Power needs batteries. Batteries are not the environment's friend, regardless of what Elon Musk has to say on the matter. What we need is a near-zero-footprint, fully-recyclable battery, with environmentally responsible disposal built into the purchase price, that can store enough charge via Solar Power to power a home. •
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