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posted by hubie on Friday September 23 2022, @01:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the tilting-at-windmills dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Even as more offshore wind projects launch and the turbines they use get bigger, there are questions around offshore wind’s economic viability. Unsurprisingly, hauling huge equipment with multiple moving parts out to deep, windy sections of ocean, setting them up, and building lines to transmit the electricity they generate back to land is expensive. Really expensive. In our profit-driven capitalist economy, companies aren’t going to sink money into technologies that don’t deliver worthwhile returns.

A Swedish energy company called SeaTwirl is flipping the offshore wind model on its head—not quite literally, but almost—and betting it will be able to deliver cheap renewable energy and make a profit along the way. SeaTwirl is one of several companies developing vertical-axis wind turbines, and one of just a couple developing them for offshore use.

A quick refresher on what vertical axis means: the turbines we’re used to seeing (that is, on land, at a distance, often from an interstate highway or rural road), have horizontal axes; like windmills, their blades spin between parallel and perpendicular to the ground, anchored by a support column that’s taller than the diameter covered by the spinning blades.

[...] The generator in a vertical-axis turbine, on the other hand, can be placed anywhere on said vertical axis; in an offshore context, this means it can be at the waterline or below, adding weight where weight is needed.

Vertical-axis turbines can also use wind coming from any direction. Since their rotation doesn’t take up as much space as that of horizontal-axis turbines nor create as much of a blocking effect on downwind turbines, they can be placed closer together, generating more electricity in a given footprint.

[...] The turbine will rise 180 feet (55 meters) out of the water, and its weighted central pole will reach 262 feet (80 meters) below the surface. That’s a total height of 442 feet. For perspective, the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet tall including the base and foundation. The vertical-axis turbine is still dwarfed by its horizontal-axis counterparts, though; GE’s Haliade-X is 853 feet tall, and Chinese MingYang Smart Energy Group is building a turbine that’s even a few feet taller.

Why are all the wind generators of the windmill design? This design is not novel and it has very clear engineering advantages that I'm surprised it isn't the most common design. [hubie]


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday September 23 2022, @03:06AM (2 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday September 23 2022, @03:06AM (#1273081) Journal

    Why are all the wind generators of the windmill design?

    Some reasons:
            ground effect - "cleaner" wind higher up.
            The blade’s angle of attack varies during a rotation and is a poor compromise most of the time
            The downstream blade operates in the wake of the upstream blade
            Blades are on average closer to the ground where the wind speed is lower
            The wind-shielding effect causes fatigue damage

    Many of these are not actually true. [windturbinestar.com]

    Mainly, there is massive momentum in current technology (construction, erection, and maintenance are all known and understood for horizontal designs)

    It is not dissimilar to Thorium/molten salt reactors.. known vs unknown, perceived risk vs actual (which directly impacts finance and insurance)

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Interesting=2, Informative=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2) by bussdriver on Friday September 23 2022, @04:15AM (1 child)

    by bussdriver (6876) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2022, @04:15AM (#1273088)

    These are pretty well known and failure after failure and scam after scam it never seems to end. They never get to scale because so far nobody is foolish enough to dump that kind of money before finding out smaller versions fail. They can look cool and do produce power but never are good at it; especially at large sizes.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by kazzie on Friday September 23 2022, @04:39AM

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2022, @04:39AM (#1273093)

      One firm that went to market with vertical axis turbines was QuietRevolution: their qr5 model was installed in a few places round here, generally assisted by grants or to enhance a construction project's green credentials. They marketed it on the fact that it could be fitted nearer buildings without needing as buch clearance, because of the smaller sweep of the rotor. Of course, sticking a wind turbine in the lee of a building also cust down on the force of the wind blowing through it.

      Sadly their numbers didn't add up, and the power output was far less than predicted/claimed. They were also fitted with a sprung safety brake that was disengaged by an electromagnet operated from mains power: the power drawn to release the brake was often more than that generated.

      QuietRevolution went bankrupt and/or were bought out by a competitor. When one of the qr5 turbines had a major safety fault, the new company decided they couldn't or didn't want to develop a fix for the old model, and just had them all condemed.

      Source: a local firm had theirs pulled down: I got to hear the backstory, and dig through the turbine as we took it to pieces.