Wind Power Without the Mills
forbes.com
Wind Power Without the Mills
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Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#2Also relevant are these awesome wind kits google is developing:
http://www.google.com/makani/
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#3If they have managed anywhere even close to their claimed cost reductions then this is very cool. Wind is already on par with oil in terms of EROEI.
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#4Always found it odd that wind capture/generation shapes resembled centuries old windmills. Great to see some (expected) innovation in the space. With non-moving parts, no noise, and won't sent people into epileptic shock around sunrise/sunset, it looks like a winner. (if you've never driven past a windfarm in the morning or evening, the flashing is incredibly irritating).
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#5I don't understand how they can have no moving parts?
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#6Always found it odd that wind capture/generation shapes resembled centuries old windmills. Great to see some (expected) innovation in the space. With non-moving parts, no noise, and won't sent people into epileptic shock around sunrise/sunset, it looks like a winner. (if you've never driven past a windfarm in the morning or evening, the flashing is incredibly irritating).
It's not really odd, it's a very efficient shape. Which is why propellers and main rotors also use it.
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#7I don't understand how they can have no moving parts?
Sounds like a magnetic coupling to the motor rather than gears, not no moving parts at all. Imagine it saves wear-and-tear and is easier to disengage on winds that are too strong.
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#8I don't understand how they can have no moving parts?
It has moving parts, just not moving parts in contact with one another. From what I understand the outer segment is flexible and oscillates because of vortex shedding, and a magnetic coupling between the flexible outer segment and the fixed inner one generates power. So the outer segment is mobile, but it never touches the inner segment.
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#9I don't understand how they can have no moving parts?
It does have moving parts, the article says 'no moving parts that come into contact with each other'.
The tower waggles and is made of piezoelectric materials, so the electricity comes from the deformation of the tower.
Edit - I got sideswiped by marketing. The current one is electromagnetic, the future ones are proposed to use piezoelectrics, but they do not have the materials available to do this.
Re: Wind Power Without the Mills
#10I remember hearing about something similar in '08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMojRXK14jU which became
http://www.humdingerwind.com/ - I wonder if they are related? Seems like a really interesting idea.