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Vortex bladeless wind generator

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Neat stuff. The Wired article has a bit more info (http://www.wired.com/2015/05/future-wind-turbines-no-blades/) They mention 30% less power than traditional turbines, but at what size? They also say totally silent...but anything that is moving with enough speed to generate MW must make some noise. And mentioned in the Wired article (and perhaps very important) safer to flying animals than traditional turbines.
 
Something I thought of last night while kinda asleep...how do they "safe" these things so they can be worked on, or if a hurricane is on the way? Do they fold down to the ground?
 
This looks like a really interesting and promising approach. Though one does wonder how demanding the anchoring of these is going to be compared to traditional wind turbines.

As an aside, if we want to save the birds from our electricity grid, we should start with the distribution lines. They are responsible for vastly more losses of birds than wind energy turbines. Furthermore, studies show that the amount of "birds lost per GWh generated" is much higher for fossil generation than for wind energy. As always, believe at your own risk.
The avian benefits of wind energy: A 2009 update

Edit: After reading through that study a bit, it would appear the author quantified the risks of "average climate change scenarios" into 4.98 bird deaths per GWh, contributing the largest part to the cited 5.18 fatalities per GWh.... Seems there is a lot of Crystal-balling involved here, too :rolleyes:
 
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I wonder how much these could be scaled down and still retain decent efficiency? They could be useable for individual homes in areas with lots of wind but little sun. I'm kind of wondering though if there are limitations just like you can't scale down an antenna too much for any given bandwidth you're trying to be in resonance with.
 
I wonder how much these could be scaled down and still retain decent efficiency? They could be useable for individual homes in areas with lots of wind but little sun. I'm kind of wondering though if there are limitations just like you can't scale down an antenna too much for any given bandwidth you're trying to be in resonance with.

If scalable (or perhaps "reverse scalable") it would sure reduce the amount of battery required for overnight use.
 
I wonder how much these could be scaled down and still retain decent efficiency? They could be useable for individual homes in areas with lots of wind but little sun. I'm kind of wondering though if there are limitations just like you can't scale down an antenna too much for any given bandwidth you're trying to be in resonance with.

The problem with home installations is height. Below 50m or so, the airflow is broken up by interaction with things on the ground, or the ground itself. Tall masts allow commercial projects to tap the much higher energy potential of laminar flows at some distance above the ground.
 
Bergey has three 100 ft towers in their back yard in Norman OK in the vicinity of a few ~25 ft tall buildings. The turbines were really maxing! Out on the Oklahoma flats with no hills in sight and no buildings in the wind path that day.

Bergey makes up 120 ft towers as an option but the most efficient/cost effective is the 100 ft height. Avoid the 60 ft level wind turbine except in very special locations eg seacoast locations. Thus I'm curious why the 40 ft Vortex is even being considered. I hope they do some testing with this atop a 120 ft tower.
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Vortex Bladeless - Is it a real possibility?

So I take an interest in renewable sources of energy and I came across Vortex Bladeless and it looks quite a good concept. I agree that wind turbines don't like that great (although driving through Europe and seeing loads in the countryside actually made me think they looked OK!) and these don't look as bad. Won't kill any birds (although the frequency they resonate at seems to be in the range of bats).

Vortex Bladeless: a wind generator without blades | Indiegogo

Anyone from a scientific background able to say whether this is a viable option? Obviously in their story that have a few facts and figures but they have yet to really roll it out anywhere significant.

Sorry if it's not very appropriate on TMC but I don't belong to any other forums that are about this sort of topic!