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posted by n1 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @11:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the gillette-not-impressed dept.

The Guardian reports that Vortex Bladeless has developed a new bladeless wind turbine that promises to be more efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer for birdlife than conventional turbines. Using the principle of natural frequency and vorticity, the turbine oscillates in swirling air caused by the wind bypassing the mast, and then builds exponentially as it reaches the structure's natural resonance. It's a powerful effect that famously caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, footage of which inspired David Yáñez to try to build a structure to harness this energy rather than prevent it. The turbine "floats" on magnets, which as well as significantly amplifying the oscillation, also eliminates any friction and the need for expensive lubricating oils or mechanical parts. "Wind turbines now are too noisy for people's backyard," says David Suriol. "We want to bring wind power generation to people's houses like solar power."

On the minus side the oscillating turbine design will sweep a smaller area and have a lower conversion efficiency. "The best wind turbine will collect around 50% of energy from the wind," says Suriol. "We are close to 40% with bladeless turbines in our wind tunnel laboratory." To offset this disadvantage, "you can put four, five or six 4kW turbines in the space of one conventional turbine, which need 5 meter diameter space around them," he says. In fact, wind tunnel tests have shown they perform even better placed closer together as they benefit from the vortices each of them creates.


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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:43PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:43PM (#191630)

    more efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer for birdlife than conventional turbines.

    People not wanting to look at wind turbines ranks higher on our list of priorities than fricasseeing birds? Really?

    Reminds me of my father who works for the government deciding where to place power lines. He says nobody ever wants a power line to run through their back yard. Oh my god, it's such an eyesore...it'll make my property value go down...put it in someone else's yard!

    #firstworldproblems

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  • (Score: 2) by CoolHand on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:04PM

    by CoolHand (438) on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:04PM (#191726) Journal
    No one said it was an ordered list... If it was, maybe they were "saving the best for last."
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