New Turbine Design May Boost Wind Energy

A Wyoming company has created a turbine that is 43-45 percent efficient. The design is slower, no higher than 96 feet and much much quieter. As the article states regular wind turbines are anywhere from 25-40 percent efficient which means these new ones could generate up to 80% more power with the same wind velocity. I think we will start seeing huge farms start to spring up in the Califoria desert. We already have a substantial wing program and this would be a great way to free up natural gas supplies.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Recent howling winds have been like sweet music to one local company, which says its new vertical wind turbine is substantially more efficient than traditional propeller designs.

Officials at Terra Moya Aqua Inc. unveiled their new turbine Friday, saying the design already had attracted interest from both domestic and foreign buyers.

"We have people nationally and internationally who want to buy this turbine now," said Ron Taylor, TMA's founder and chief executive officer.
New Turbine

This breakthrough should make Wind Energy more cost effective then many conventional sources I really hope my country is paying attention as the windmap project showed that Canada has Gigawatts of Wind Energy waiting to be tapped.

What about those who live where they will be set up? They don't want to look at them. Even Ted Kennedy objected at a plan to put windmills in his region.
Also, in CA, they were killing raptors.
Other than that, it could be a good thing but I don't know if anyone would want to see them set up on Trail Ridge Road in Estes Park in CO. That has to be the windy-est place in the state at 12,183 feet altitude. The wind blows from forever and it has an awsome view of the ranges of mountains stretching out as far as one can see. I think everyone would hate to see wind mills in the places they would do the most good.
We have the technology to build well rigs at sea, why not put the generators far out in the oceans?

Efficient? Slower? Much much quieter? 80% more power with the same wind velocity? Compared to what? Compared to "regular wind turbines"? What "regular wind turbines"? I would like to see some data. Like how many MW does it produce...


Here is one to compare with. A danish one. They sell this one all over the world. With 3.0 MW it´s not their most powerful one, but it´s very cost efficient.

Vestas: V90

"One of the new initiatives involved using carbon fibre instead of fibreglass as the material for a number of components in the blade spar. In fact, the new 44-metre blades for the V90 rotor are lighter than the 39-metre blades"

***

The weight of the turbine has an appreciable influence on factors such as material consumption, production costs, transport costs and the erection process itself. In addition, the weight of a turbine is often crucial to its suitability for offshore sites.

Today, customers are looking for the best possible combination of price, weight and efficiency so as to keep costs per kWh as low as possible.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Efficient? Slower?

Yes I assume they use composites and advanced ultra-low friction bearings as well as increasing the effective surface area on the blades(by making the blades themselves bigger) that is used to turn the motor. It sounds contradictory but it is true that larger wind turbines can be more efficient AND be a much less of a hazard to wildlife and peoples sentive ears ( )

As for the comments on how ugly they would look I disagree, I think they look elegant and if that is the reason why it doesn't get installed then that just shows just how shallow we really are.

Personally I think as the amounts of smog days increase the people opposing this on frivolous grounds will change there tune.

[edit on 7-11-2005 by sardion2000]

Here's the latest in Norwegian windmill technology.
Strong "floating" windmills for off-shore use.


Beautiful... "sexy" windmill from Hydro

Hydro: Floating windmills

A demonstration project is currently being planned based on wind turbines with a power generation capacity of 3 megawatt (MW). The windmills will reach 80 meters above the sea’s surface and will have a rotor diameter of about 90 meters.

According to plans, the demonstration project will start operating in 2007. We eventually envision wind turbines with a power capacity of 5 MW and a rotor diameter of approximately 120 meters.

“The future goal is to have large-scale offshore wind parks with up to 200 turbines capable of producing up to 4 terawatt hours (TWh) per year and delivering renewable electricity to both offshore and onshore activities.

[edit on 2006/9/18 by Hellmutt]

The "floating wind mills" I think people will go for. In time we'll probably be able to send them wherever the wind is strongest.
They are "elegant" but who wants to look at Niagra Falls thru' a forest of wind mills? Its harder and harder to get away from the trappings of civilization as it is.
I really wish solar collectors were more affordable. I'd put them on my roof in a minute if I could pay for it.

Interesting product. Should fit in well in the Medicine Bow windfarm up there.



Competitive advantages:

The many unique and outstanding features of TMA's vertical axis turbines provide a substantial competitive advantage in the marketplace especially when one considers:

* no bird kill
* no field of magnetic resonance
* no interference with aircraft navigation or communication
* no ground resonance
* very quiet operation

TMA believes its turbine provides many advantages versus the conventional propeller-type turbines (“props”) including:

1) Lower operating costs and less downtime because the critical equipment is readily accessible in the base of the unit at grade level
2) Lower capital costs once in mass production due to a simpler design
3) More acceptable to local communities because of less “visual pollution” (shorter and no large, exposed rotor), no bird kills and quiet operation
4) Superior handling of gusts and high winds .
5) No electronic, magnetic or radar interference for aircraft navigation equipment.



www.tmawind.com...



Northwestern U.S. Wind Mapping Project

Montana and Wyoming would be could candidates to put up more turbines,

Hey, check this out. Hydro will place the world's first floating windmill off the coast of Norway, 10 to 15 kilometres from the coast. They require a water depth of at least 200 metres.

Hydro: Floating windmill positioned off Karmoy

2005-11-09

Test results demonstrate that offshore windmills will be able to withstand very rough conditions.

"Deep waters close to land, as well the proximity of established shipyards and supplier industries, make the sea off Karmoy on the west coast of Norway the perfect location for the world's first floating windmill," said Alexandra Bech Gjorv, head of the New Energy unit in Hydro, at the company's energy seminar in Bergen on Wednesday.

This autumn Hydro tested how floating windmills will perform in different wind and wave conditions. The trials were conducted in the ocean basin of Sintef Marintek in Trondheim and results show that the concept can withstand some very rough weather conditions. Hydro has therefore decided to proceed with its research and demonstration project, called Hywind.

The floating windmill will extend 120 metres beneath the surface and therefore requires a water depth of at least 200 metres. Ocean depths meeting this requirement are found 10 to 15 kilometres west of Karmoy.

Click the link to read the full article

[edit on 2006/9/18 by Hellmutt]

Youtube has animated videos of the "Maglev Wind Turbine", which is a very large vertical wind generator that floats on magnets like the Maglev Train, which supposedly reduces energy friction loss. Do a youtube search engine to find these videos, as the videos come and go with time. I read somewhere that China may use these.

I like the "Windbelt" principle, that is used to make very inexpensive small wind generators. Maybe someone could develope this basic idea to somehow make an inexpensive "large" wind generator. Youtube has at least one video on the windbelt, and maybe more. The windbelt is a wire that vibrates in the wind, and this wire is located between coils of wire to generate power as the wire vibrates.

reply to post by Hellmutt


The Vestas WTGs are well established here in my state with the Woolnorth development near Cape Grim and the Studland Bay section of that consists of 25 V90 units, the earlier stage using the smaller 1.75MW units. These are hard to beat efficiency wise but, even then, and with such a reliably windy site directly in the path of the roaring 40s, RECs (renewable energy credits) is pretty much all that makes these projects viable financially. That site is so windy the trees grow sideways and these turbines achieve peak output in winds of 30-50 knots.

The V90 turbines themselves are awe inspiringly massive to see up close but a big problem maintenance-wise is that each turbine has to house a gearbox, alternator, electronics and a transformer (dry type to save precious weight) within the 'nacelle' at the top of the mast (100s of feet above the ground). Any design capable of even the same efficiency with those components on ground level will be a winner in my books.


[edit on 25/4/2010 by Pilgrum]

reply to post by Pilgrum


New research has found that windfarms on land increase temperatures locally by one degree celsius. But offshore windfarms decrease temperatures locally by one degree celsius. Very strange. Anyway, it seems like we can lower temperatures by installing lots of offshore windfarms. However, the purpose of windfarms is to produce energy, and not to fight global warming. Interesting nevertheless. If this turns out to be correct (and the effect is extreme), perhaps in the future there will be restrictions for windfarms on land, and offshore windfarms will be encouraged instead?


Wind farms causing temperature to rise

Very interesting findings re the temperature rise which goes to confirm there's always a price attached to extracting and converting 'free' energy. A temp increase of 1C at Cape Grim would probably be welcome though, considering those winds mostly come off the very cold southern ocean and frequently all the way from antarctica (south to southwest). It could be more of an issue with a proposed 250MW windfarm in the centre of the state though.

The turbine linked in the OP is not exactly a new design to me except for the 'concentrating' housing that's claimed to be the source of the higher efficiency but still a little unclear on how it's adjusted for variable wind directions. The turbine itself looks very similar to a design which won a university design contest in the 80s here in Oz with manufacture & assembly being quite simple and turbine sections can be stacked vertically for greater output, lack of a concentrator means the naked turbine needs no adjustment for any wind direction which is a big advantage in keeping costs down. It was deemed a feasible improvement on the typical farm windmills used to pump artesian water to the surface but seems (so far at least) to have missed out on application for large-scale power generation or any power generation uses for that
matter probably due to the turbine dimensions necessary to extract >1MW from a 30 knot breeze. Crude versions of these turbines can be made by simply cutting a 200L drum in half and they do work.