New Style VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine)

[PJs]

I ran across this and thought it should be posted for all the DIY Alt Energy folks.

The small company is called "IceWind" started by two engineers and founded in 2012, in Iceland.

It is one of the most simple foil designs I've seen and is completely scalable. It also has from what I could tell a very simple over-speed controller (probably a centrifugal clutch) which allows it to run in winds form 2m/s to 60+m/s and disengage for hi-velocity gusts which are surely prevalent in Iceland. Note that the larger units have a dual inverted foil design for more effective transfer and probably radial bearing load at higher rpm's. Truly a simple, elegant design in my book.

The scalability of these make them very useful for all kinds of sub-implementations like their bus stop WIFI/USB Charge station, lights and advertising. Additionally they are experimenting with hybrid PV (photovoltaic) and VAWT systems. The idea of these scalable units with hybrid possibilities is something I've been interested in for years.

Hope you find some value in this as I have. ~PJ

[C-Bag]

How did I miss this when you posted it? Great vid and wonderful idea, now how to fab up one?

Thanks for posting this!

[PJs]

How did I miss this when you posted it? Great vid and wonderful idea, now how to fab up one?

Thanks for posting this!

I've really been enjoying this thread that Jon has put together and made it part of my daily routine here. If feels like a place where creativity seems to focus on things outside our normal builds and topics we have so much fun with. When I found this I did ask Jon where he thought I might put it...here it landed.

As for fabing one up; I personally in no way want to infringe on this great idea directly and truly hope they succeed. However the design goes back to Persia as he indicated and similar in some ways to Da Vinci's helicopter designs. For me personally it rang the "Twirly Gig" bell...simple kids toys. I think a simple model could be made from thin sheet metal or even PVC sheet to flush out a few things. One thing a design I came up with years ago, was a way to ease bearing load by directing air flow to create lift at running speeds. Now with the idea of magnetic bearings, the reduction of friction loss from the bearings can be reduced a bit more. The generator and clutch are probably very similar to standard DIY tech but commercially made for the harsh environment up there.

The one thing I thought was missing on their website were flow stats. However I would bet money that the dual inverted version has some significant bleed from the smaller into the larger (might consider it a turbo effect) and adds to the stability...which is why I liked it. Flow analysis software is readily available now and quite sure these nuclear engineers have it available for their design process. One thing that happens at the foil edges is the turbulence as the air catches or leaves the blade. It can do harm and good depending on conditions. I noticed in the vid the time he spent working that edge. Natural winds are a difficult thing to model but being able to run it through the paces in standard terms would give a ton of data towards the effectiveness of the design...hence the broad real world testing they are going through now.

~PJ

[C-Bag]

I guess I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place as even the kits are $2-3k and I don't think that's with a tower. I'm just intrigued to see how it does in RL as all the pix, like on top of the bus stop are down low and are spinning away. Speaking of which, what a great way to be able to charge your cell while waiting for the bus! Another thing I'm really interested in is how much noise they make. That's one thing that I'd not thought of until I saw a doc on wind turbines. I'll bet they don't make the wooop wooop prop blades make.

[PJs]

One of the big advantages of VAWT is that they can operate in very little wind, from almost any direction, so the bus stop was no surprise. The key is not trying to get XX-Kw from them although in open space in proper locations they can. Ultimately, winds are more constant at higher settings >60' but can be more violent as well. Horizontal Roof top systems are being deployed in the larger cities on tall building but they would also be valuable on single family roof tops at around 35'. By having several smaller ones distributed one could ultimately tie them together for KW type power, but it's the flexibility of sub systems, that appeals to me. For instance a relatively small one could run a well pump with a small charging system and small battery bank. One other thought/consideration for distributed systems is to generate 3ph AC, at a higher voltage which can be transmitted much further to a central conversion/storage system for more local usage. If we could only develop a way to store AC efficiently, now that would be something!

They are also generally quieter than conventional blade turbines because of the blade shear and tip velocity, I think...and less likely to catch birds off guard.

~PJ

[PJs]

I ran across another short one this morning with a similar small group of engineers in Scotland. Their premise for coming up with a small 1KW unit fits my paradigm for a systems approach to Alt Energy generation and distribution.

What he explains in the beginning gives a lot of the good reasons for VAWT designs to answer some of C-Bags questions. I particularly enjoyed the testing of the Roll, Pitch, Yaw issues for ocean based generation although no real numbers were given they seemed to be pleased with the results at acute angle of attack.

Additionally they designed and built a wind tunnel for testing, something I have experience designing a building. Although on a cheap and cheerful budget all the primary elements were designed in for this kind of testing and particularly liked their flow straighteners cheap and cheerful style.

~PJ