| I thought about this problem for a long time and came to the conclusion that a different method was needed to collect more power from the wind. The idea I have is a complete departure from the traditional rotating propeller method. Instead of a stationary wind mill, I imagine a very large wind sail held high in the atmosphere by kites and perhaps helium filled balloons. I think the sail could use very strong but light weight materials and have a wind collection area equal to several football fields. The large wind collection area of such a sail might be equivalent to several hundred wind turbines. |
| The sail would be connected to a light weight but very strong rope. The rope would be attached to a spool that in turn would be connected to a gear box and generator. The heavy mechanical assembly would be securely anchored to the ground. The force of the wind would pull on the rope and the spool would deploy the rope at a given rate which is based on the wind speed. The movement and forces of the pulling rope would spin the generator to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy. The huge sail might be attached to 10 or 20 miles of rope. |
| When the sail reached the end of the rope, control lines connected to the sail would collapse most of the sail’s wind collection area. A second identical sail system, attached to the other end of the same rope, would then unfurl another sail and would start its outward pulling cycle. That cycle would pull in the first collapsed sail. To prevent entanglement, the two sails might be separated by several miles. The push-pull action of the two sails would provide a constant flow of power. |
| Now, imagine each sail to have a million square feet of wind collection area. Assuming an efficiency of 30% and a wind speed of 35 miles an hour, such a wind generator would produce about 70 Megawatts of electricity. Assuming the average home needs about 2,000 watts, the wind sail would be able to provide power to 35,000 homes. |
| I think the technology exists to make sails with areas measured in square miles. A one square mile sail would be able to produce 2000 Megawatts of electricity in a 35 mph wind. That is enough power for about one million average size homes, enough power for a large city. Then, if the wind were to gust up to 50 mph, the same sail would crank out almost 6,000 Megawatts. |
| I admit that my idea is still rather rough and preliminary. The concept would need a lot of work to get a practical system developed. A lot more time would be needed to address the issues of keeping the sail from spinning and figuring out ways to collapse the sail at the end of its pulling cycle. But, overall I think it would work. What do you think? |
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Wind Power Videos
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Jersey Atlantic Wind Farm From: timeninjastudios A short documentary on the most incredible, awe inspiring place in the universe: a wind farm. Produced for Plum TV. |
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Disk Wind Turbine From: otivaeey How the turbine works: Rotatable shutters mounted on a circular disk automatically open when directed into the wind, irregardless of the wind’s direction. Pairs of upper and lower shutters are geared together. The lower shutter acts as a counterweight to the upper shutter. The bottom shutter opens in the downward direction and its weight helps to lift the upper shutter in the upward direction, as the wind applies an opening force against both shutters…. For more Information: |
| Wind Turbine From: stchrist A wind turbine east of Bloomington, IL For more Information:
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| Climbing Wind Turbines From: newconsumer Swaffham, Norfolk, to climb the UK’s only wind turbine open to the public. Last week, the EU committed Europe to producing 20 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020. In the UK, that mostly means wind power, which – contrary to some reports – is being greeted with open arms in parts of the country. One of the nation’s wind-lovers is the tiny Norfolk town of Swaffham, which is already home to two major turbines and has just received a planning application for another six |
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| Encore Clean Energy SideWinder Wind Turbine From: Larry411 Encore’s proof-of-concept SideWinder wind-turbine demo unit develops tremendous torque at its central shaft even in low speed winds. The SideWinder is radically-different than any other wind turbine technology being offered today and targets the most lucrative and currently untapped market for wind power: the low wind-speed ROOFTOP WIND market — harnessing clean wind energy on top of mini-malls and buildings around the world…. For more information: |
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| Wind Turbine (Quietrevolution QR5) From: rubenet2000 The UK has the largest wind resource of any country in Europe, making it the ideal choice for a renewable source of energy. It is estimated that small scale wind generation – together with other forms of microgeneration – could provide 30-40% of all the UK’s electricity needs by 2050*. And, with price trends for crude oil continuing upwards, it is currently projected that the cost of small scale wind will be competitive with fossil fuels by as early as 2010. The BWEA has some useful information on small wind… For more information: |
Wind Energy Physics
| Since air has mass (1.23Kg/cubic meter), its motion can exert sizeable forces as its momentum is stopped or slowed down. The momentum transfer can be used to rotate propeller style wind sails, often called wind turbines. The rotating turbine is connected to an electrical generator through a gear box: |
| Most generator systems are synchronized to the utility grid so the generators spin at a constant speed. To compensate for different wind conditions most systems have variable pitch propellers that can capture more or less wind forces. Some wind generator also have gearboxes that have variable input vs output gear ratios, as another way to deal with different wind speed conditions. The better machines carefully measure the wind speed and make corrections to the propeller blades and the gearbox to maintain maximum mechanical to electrical conversion efficiency. |
| The minimum speed that a wind turbine can begin producing useful electricity is often called the cut-in speed. Many systems have a typical 10 mph cut-in speed requirement. When the wind speed exceeds a certain level, many wind turbines disconnect their generators from the power grid and rotate the propellers to a feather position to prevent damage to the turbine. The cut-out speed of many systems is around 50 or 60 mph. |
Wind Power Videos
| PVC wind generator propeller From: gotwind2 Latest gotwind.org design, 1000 rpm + For More Information: |
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| Suzlon S88 V3 Prototype turbine From: Chuckufarli1 Suzlon S88 V3 Prototype turbine under test in South Australia. For More Information: |
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| Me at work From: monsterdax Working on a Wind Turbine in Norway |
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| Colorado Farmer 1.2 From: thirdpointmedia Phil Davis, a Colorado farmer, shows us how his solar panel setup reduces his monthly energy bills to zero, pays itself off after ten years and after that becomes a profitable venture. He shows, rather than tells, us that clean energy is here and working. – This is a revision of the early ad, it adds in the website at the bottom for longer. I think this add should appeal to the environmentally-curious, but financially-hesitant, middle America, giving them a clear example of how cost effective it can be to make earth-friendly decisions. This could be one in a series that would also include wind power on a ranch in the midwest. |
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| Orange Glastonbury wind Charger From: gotwind2 gotwinds’s Orange wind charger, designed by Ben Jandrell |
Tall Vertical Axis
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Tall Vertical Axis
Windspire is a low-cost, easy-to-install wind power appliance that provides a safe and attractive method for harnessing power from the wind. At only 30 feet tall and 2 feet wide, Windspire is safe for birds and people, and is distinguished by its sleek propeller-free design, silent operation, rugged construction, simple installation and affordable pricing. Designed for operation where we live and work, it sells for $3,995.00 and comes complete with the inverter, poles, and an installation kit. For more information: |
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Unusual vertical axis Silent VAWT PacWind’s Delta 2 produces an average of 5kw, but if winds of 29mph are present it can produce up to 10kw. I am standing on the roof of our building which overlooks the Torrance Airport, there is a lot of noise pollution during the day from vehicle traffic, helicopters/airplanes and work projects down below. I am proud that our Turbine is completely silent and dos not contribute to the daily noise pollution in the city that I love. Please see us at www.pacwind.net (more) For more information: |
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| Renewable Device – BBC NewNight From: spaceman70 The Swift Wind turbine in high speed operation. This video clip is an extract from coverage of the Swift turbine on the BBC’s Newsnight programme in July 2006, and clearly shows the acoustic supression technology in operation. The rooftop Wind Energy System incorporates safety features which exceed all the British, European and North American safety standards for wind energy systems of this class. Renewable Devices leads the market in passive safety and fail-safe technologies.
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What is "Title"?
| Wind Power Equation |
| To predict how much power is available from the wind, you can use the equation below. |
| Power in watts = (collection area in sq. ft.) (Wind speed in MPH)3 (0.0054) |
| To illustrate how this equation works, imagine that you have a wind turbine with a diameter of 10 feet (area of 79 sq. ft) that is spinning in a steady 30 mph wind. According to the equation above, if the generator were 100% efficient, it would produce about 11,500 watts of electricity. |
| Of course, perfect machine does not exists that can extract all of the available energy. A more realistic efficiency figure is 30%. So, using our example above, we could expect our generator, in a 30 mph wind to produce about 3,500 watts of electricity. Now, if the wind were to increase to 60 mph, according to the equation, the power produced would increase by a factor of eight or 28,000 watts. |
| This cube function is what makes control systems for extracting power from the wind so difficult to design. A small change in wind speed means a large change in electrical power output. |
| In the equation above, note that the electrical power produced is proportional to the wind collection area. So, it is advantageous for a wind farm to collect as much wind as possible by having large diameter wind turbine propellers. However, conventional wind turbines don’t scale very well. As wind turbines become larger, the cost of the supporting towers and the propellers drives up the cost per kilowatt hour of the energy converted. Large arrays of medium size wind turbines are generally used in wind farms. |
Wind Power Videos
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Blimp Generator Test Flight Magenn Air Rotor (Alpha ) from Liftport Energy Magenn Power’s MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere™ solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems including: global deployment, lower costs, better operational performance, and greater environmental advantages. For more information: |
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Areo Turbines
Areo Turbine – Darrius and Savonius Combination This turbine designed by Bill Becker of University of Illinois. It has a design that is sutable for urban settings – caged, small size and low noise, albeit not very efficient.
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| How Skystream Works From: swwindpower Backyard wind power: Skystream 3.7 is the revolutionary new wind generator designed for utility-connected homes. Reduce your electric bills with clean, renewable wind energy. For more information: |
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| Motorwind Turbines at Sea School, Hong Kong From: orangehues Installation of Motorwind turbines developed by Motorwave group, HK. (Generators not installed at the time of the video) For more information: |
Utility Companies
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Green Transportation Options – Electric Scooters
People ride electric scooters because they:
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Green Transportation Options: Solar Flight
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The combination is irresistible: photovoltaic cells covering the long, wide wings of an airplane, making the electricity to drive the propellor. If the solar cells could also charge batteries to run the plane at night, it would be possible to keep the plane in the air as close to perpetually as the weather allows. But heavyweight batteries and inefficient solar cells made such an accomplishment difficult. |
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