What happens when you remove the blades from a wind turbine ?
You get a better wind turbine, even more efficient!
Sounds like a joke, right?
But it's actually, more or less, the blueprint for a new wind turbine prototype.
Instead of having blades that spin in the wind, this turbine is a kind of hollow straw that rises up to 12 meters above the ground.
It vibrates like the strings of a guitar when the wind blows through it. Watch:
The Spanish engineers who founded Vortex Bladeless in 2010 said they were inspired by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster.
Maybe not the best pitch for a clean energy project to a cautious audience, but I'll leave that to their marketing department!
Here's how this wind turbine actually works, according to Wired magazine:
"Instead of capturing energy through the circular motion of a propeller, the vortex takes advantage of what's called vorticity (or whirlpool). It's an aerodynamic effect that produces a pattern of spinning vortices.
Vorticity has long been considered the enemy of architects and engineers who actively try to circumvent the difficulty represented by these wind vortices.
And for good reason:with a certain wind force, vorticity can lead to oscillating motion in structures, which in some cases, such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, can cause eventual collapse.
At the base of the cone are two ring-shaped magnets that repel each other. They act as a sort of non-electric motor. As the cone swings in one direction, the magnets pull it in the other direction.
It gives a slight boost to increase the movement of the mast, whatever the wind speed.
This kinetic energy is then converted into electricity via an alternator which multiplies the frequency of the oscillation of the mast. This system has the effect of improving the efficiency of energy storage."
The result is that this turbine costs 50% less than a wind turbine with blades.
She is almost silent. And as one of the engineers pointed out, it looks like an asparagus!
A Vortex turbine is also 30% less efficient at producing energy. But wind farms can accommodate twice as many wind turbines in a given area, if they have no blades.
This is a 40% energy gain that these little math geniuses allow!
In addition, this turbine has no gears or moving parts. The maintenance of these wind turbines should theoretically be much simpler.
This innovation overshadows my three-bladed friends a bit, but I can't complain about a cheaper and more accessible future wind turbine.
