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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.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:04PM
I like wind farms. The sight of wind turbines turning on the horizon mesmerizes me. It's the Buck Rogers future and I get to live in it.
But there's a different aspect of wind farms I don't like, which is that it's yet another form of centralized control. Don't pay the utility? No power for you! Don't like that they just jacked up your rates 20%? Tough cookies, no power for you!
I'd much rather see ways for the average homeowner to harness wind power for household use. Current incarnations of rooftop units are frustrated by the laminar flow of the landscape. Perhaps this is a different approach that could better harness the eddies and whorls that characterize the windscape of the home.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday June 03 2015, @09:40PM
If you really want to go off grid then small solar + small wind + battery + petrol / diesel backup generator. Don't rely on a single source.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 04 2015, @01:23AM
I would really like to do that here in Brooklyn, because we pay more than $0.35/kwh. I put our household on an energy diet and have gotten our monthly usage under 200kwh, but we still get held over a barrel for $70+, more than half of which is for the maintenance of their power lines. But we live in an apartment with no ability to put what we want on the roof. I fantasize about converting the abandoned satellite dishes on the fire escape into solar concentrators that drive stirling engines, but of course that wouldn't even put a dent in it. Sigh.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by Absolutely.Geek on Thursday June 04 2015, @03:44AM
Ah I see what I did there; as someone who lives in the wide open spaces of NZ in a house with plenty of roof space I made a bad assumption. I was also thinking of my uncles farm which is off grid out the back of Masterton because the cost of getting a power line there was way too much.
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Masterton/@-40.9469568,175.8942586,10z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d413ec2d8c79e93:0x500ef6143a29916 [google.co.nz]
You pay a lot for your power $0.35US seems very high; I pay between $0.16NZD and $0.28NZD ($0.1143USD - $0.2USD). 200kWh/mth is very good. I am averaging 150 in a small (120m^2 = 1291.67ft^2) house. But I have a wood burner as my main source of heat and gas for water heating.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:40PM
Wow, 150kwh? How do you manage that? I have a fridge, run-hot server, a cable modem, and a couple wifi routers. That's it. Everything else is off except for the few minutes it's needed.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by Absolutely.Geek on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:36PM
Wood burner for heat in winter and no air con in summer (30 degC max). Hot water is handled by natural gas, so no electricity spent there. Both my partner and I work so during the day nothing is on but the fridge and my server. Most of the lights in the house are now LED downlights 36W (6 x 6W) in the lounge, 50W (5 x 10W) in the bathroom, with more being replaced as we renovate. I have a newish 4k TV that has a low power draw, and I read a lot.....we eat out probably too much so the electric oven / stove only gets used 2 - 4 times a week.
We always dry our clothes outside on the washing line; I understand that is not possible in an apartment but the dryer does suck up a fair amount of power.
Kiwis generally use around 7 - 10kWh a day, we are a bit below that. I know that people in the US are using on average 30kWh a day......probably due to climatic differences.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:12AM
Follow the coast SW out of Buffalo, NY, look north across the lake, they are HUGE! And awesome. You can hear them from the shore and they are a very long ways away. It was one of the nifty things I found when I took random roads across the country last time. Fantastic. I suspect you will appreciate it if you are ever in that area.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:45PM
It's been a decade since I was in the Buffalo area, but I did do a cross-country road trip about 5 years ago and marveled at how many turbines I saw all the way from Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming to Montana. I love the mountains and untrammeled nature, but somehow the sight of turbines against that backdrop is additive. It's one of the reasons it was hard for me to understand why the rich people on Cape Cod fought that offshore wind project so bitterly.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Thursday June 04 2015, @09:37PM
I suspect we have a similar mentality. It is not about their beauty, though they can be, it is about how they are a technological marvel for us in this environment. They are still fairly new and they are septic in an otherwise confusing view that is loaded with fractals and myriad colors. They contrast what we expect and even provide audio stimulation - and vibrations in the air and ground if you get close enough (not recommended). Seeing them so far away on the lake and then being able to hear them on the small road that circles the lake was really enjoyable. The wind whips across the Great Lake (strangely it seemed to stay steadily to the north but that sort of makes sense given the size of the lake and the effect that will have on local climates and wind direction/force) and the windmills hum at great speed.
What did bother me is that the windmills in some areas were, somehow, disabled. The wind was certainly strong enough but they appeared to be locked into a stationary position. Why? I never did get an acceptable answer. I found this a number of times but Kansas was the most memorable. It is notable because I got "kicked out" of Kansas and told never to return. I would not let them search my vehicle. The officer tried to claim refusing to search was actually probable cause to search. I informed him that I am an old man and not some dumb teenager and that it was a good effort on his part but I am not that stupid. So, I was right next to Missouri anyhow, he directed me to the highway and told me I was to never return to Kansas. That is, obviously, not binding but it would be damned amusing to go to Kansas and just happen to run into that officer again but, ah well, I digress even further.
I do try to remain on topic for the first day of a thread. After that I consider it fair game and anyone who begrudges open communication is silly.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."