Wind Power
I am interested in affordable wind power systems that can be built by "ordinary" people. Traditional systems requiring high poles and large propellers aren't practical for most people. Obviously efficiency will not be as great closer to the ground, but the impact on the environment and the difficulty of implementation won't be as great either. Mar 1
NOTE: Some major wind projects like the proposed TWE Carbon Valley project in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's wind turbine technology. The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield high levels of wind energy. This makes the U.S. something of a Saudi Arabia for wind energy, ranked third in the world for total wind energy potential.
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
On this page we attempt to give a brief introduction to the basic concepts of designing and building wind turbines. | Site | Tower | Anemometers | Generators & Alternators | Cut-In Speed | Alternator Design | | Rotor Design & Carving | Furling & Shutdown | Regulation | Slip Rings | Futher Reading | Where do you start??? First, do your homework! Why re-invent the wheel when you can learn from others' successes and failures? There are many useful books, websites and plans available.
Wind Turbine Concepts Defined and Explained
A journey through the evolution of the most spectacular wind turbines designs in the world -
Wind Turbine Design – The Most Amazing Windmills in the World |
Small Wind Turbine Farm Nearly Complete at Quinnipiac University
Adobe’s installation of 20 small wind turbines on the sixth floor of their headquarters building made big news recently. But this is even bigger.photo: John Dabiri/Caltech An interesting new study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy turns on its head conventional wisdom about both the optimum technical solution and spacing for wind power projects so that they generate the most electricity.Researchers from the California Institute of Technology found that large horizontal axis wind turbines, broadly spaced (as in what you likely think of in a commercial wind farm) are far bettered by using shorter, vertical axis turbines , tightly spaced. VAWTs are ideal, [John] Dabiri says, because they can be positioned very close to one another. This lets them capture nearly all of the energy of the blowing wind and even wind energy above the farm.
Wind Farms Of Small Vertical Axis Turbines More Efficient, Cheaper Than Conventional Projects
Fish hold the key to better wind farms
According to Robert W. Whittlesey, Sebastian Liska and John O. Dabiri over at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, wind farms could generate significantly more power if they were more fish-like.
Urban windmills harm the environment
"The problem is not the windmill - it is the wind" Small windmills have been around for some decades, but in recent years the focus has shifted on developing their potential use in an urban environment (where most of us live). It’s difficult to keep track of the numerous proposed new designs , meant to be placed on the roof or on a mast in the garden.Conventional wind turbine technology has been a bit out of reach for most residential consumers living in urban areas—until now. Researchers at Hong Kong University and Lucien Gambarota of Motorwave Ltd . have developed Motorwind, a micro-wind turbine technology small enough for private use in both rural and urban environments. Unlike large-scale wind turbines, Motorwave’s micro-wind turbines are light, compact (25 cm rotor diameter), and can generate power with wind speeds as low as 2 meters/second.
MICRO WIND TURBINES: Small Size, Big Impact
by Lance Turner T here are many situations where you might need a small amount of electricity, for instance running gate openers, safety lights, water level indicators and other low-power devices. While solar would seem like the ideal solution, quite often this is not possible due to location and shading problems. Just such a situation arose when I decided to make our new gates automatic.