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posted by hubie on Saturday June 18 2022, @04:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the land-where-palm-trees-sway dept.

Inspired by palm trees, scientists develop hurricane-resilient wind turbines:

Wind technology is growing—literally. Today's offshore wind turbines can tower more than 490 feet above ground, their spinning blades churning out up to 8 megawatts (MW) each—about enough to power 4000 homes in the U.S.

But with their increasing size comes challenges. Off the east coast, where offshore turbines are located in the U.S., increasingly powerful Atlantic hurricanes pose risks to the structures themselves and to the future of wind energy. To make those turbines more hurricane-resilient, a team of CU Boulder researchers are taking a cue from nature and turning the turbine around.

"We are very much bio-inspired by palm trees, which can survive these hurricane conditions," said Lucy Pao, Palmer Endowed Chair in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

Traditional upwind turbines face the incoming wind, and to avoid being blown into the tower, their blades must be sufficiently stiff. It requires a lot of material to build these relatively thick and massive blades, which drives up their cost. Turbine blades on downwind rotors, however, face away from the wind, so there's less risk of them hitting the tower when the winds pick up. This means they can be lighter and more flexible, which requires less material and therefore less money to make. These downwind blades can also then bend instead of break in the face of strong winds—much like palm trees.

[...] Ultimately, she believes a combination of improved controllers, lighter and resilient materials, and strategic turbine configurations could allow for giant offshore turbines to outpace the competition. They're not only more cost-effective and energy efficient, allowing for one big turbine instead of many smaller ones (which would reduce installation and maintenance costs), and able to capture faster wind speeds higher off the ground, but they could also withstand the more severe weather sure to come.

"Wind turbine blades are typically designed to last at least 20 years, and we want our novel concept blades to achieve similarly long lifetimes," said Pao.

Accompanying video.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:43AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:43AM (#1254173)

    Wind power will supply the energy for our satellite city in the clouds of Venus.

    Only then can we study the effects of a CO2 rich atmosphere.

    Venus 2022 = Earth 3022.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @05:48AM (#1254174)

      We could turn our plucky Ingenuity helicopter sideways and use it as a generator on Mars.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @07:30AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @07:30AM (#1254183)

    Why does that seem like we need to put a lot of money and environmental disaster into powering just 4000 homes?
    And never any discussion on the lifecycle and recycling of these things.
    Not even taking into account the infrastructer and delivery for a growing population or the fact that it only generates under optimal conditions while needing a store solution too.

    Maybe harvesting dog barks and unicorn farts are more efficient.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:01AM (#1254186)

      ok, Coal Troll.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Saturday June 18 2022, @07:31AM (2 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday June 18 2022, @07:31AM (#1254184) Journal

    Push propellers have been a thing in shipping for decades

    Flexible struts are a thing in kite building some types of glider wing.

    I could never figure out why they made turbines follow the wind like old fashioned windmills... without the sail plane, it has always required huge motors to turn the turbine to face the wind, as the blades are being pushed 'back'..

    With the turbine allowed to be behind the pivot, far less effort is required to keep the blades in the direction of the wind - it is where they naturally want to be!

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:32AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:32AM (#1254189)

      There are four main reasons. Upwind turbines with powered yaw systems simplify the nacelle coupling to the mast and allow more power flow. Upwind turbines are quieter by a surprisingly large amount. Upwind turbines are more efficient and get quite a bit more power in the same wind. To contrast, downwind turbines also tend to wear out faster for a variety of reasons.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @12:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @12:09PM (#1254209)

        > Upwind turbines are quieter

        I believe this is because the blades don't pass through the turbulent wake downstream of the tower.
        A round tower will shed von Karman vortexes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_vortex_street [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:12AM (1 child)

    by Frosty Piss (4971) on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:12AM (#1254187)

    Maybe I’m being pedantic, but are we talking about “scientists” or engineers?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:28AM (#1254188)

      Yes, we are.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @10:40AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @10:40AM (#1254201)

    I know we are supposed to go to IRC to report problems, and illicit Spam mods, but IRC seems to be down, or gone. What gives, Soylent admins?

    Oops, invalid form hey! Again! My bad! I am so sorry. 18 days left.

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