Airborne Wind Turbine

Makani Power is developing an Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) to extract energy from the powerful, consistent winds at altitude. All flight modes of the kite have been demonstrated by Wing 7, a 30kW prototype of our upcoming utility scale product. Developed with the support of the Department of Energy, office of ARPA-E, and Google, the Wing 7 has a wingspan of eight meters and a mass of 58.4 kg.

In this video, the AWT can be seen launching from a perch, reeling out into hover mode, autonomously transitioning from hover into crosswind flight, flying crosswind to generate power and transitioning out of crosswind back into hover before it finally comes to rest on a perch again.

Topics: Onshore Wind

500 watt vertical axis wind turbine

The vertically oriented wind turbines sold by PacWind are said to be friendly to birds and also appropriate for use in urban areas. PacWind turbines are silent and compatible with solar power and grid-tied systems.

The smallest unit offered by PacWind is the Seahawk. It is 30 inches wide and 48 inches tall, costs about $3,000 and can be used for homes, boats, buildings, lighting, emergency power and remote power, such as an automatic gate at the end of a long driveway. The SeaHawk, the first turbine in a series has a power output of 1 Kilowatt and a maximum power output of 3.4 Kilowatts. The SeaHawk measures 55 inches High by 30 inches in diameter. The PacWind VAWT is scaleable to Megawatt class turbines.

The PacWind VAWTs are architecturally and aesthetically pleasing in stand alone fashion or installed in VAWT towers of up to five turbines high. The PacWind VAWT towers allow for extremely compact utilization of the wind’s energy in urban as well as rural areas, while at the same time allowing the turbines to simply blend into their architectural surroundings.

Topics: Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

SeaTwirl puts a new spin on offshore wind turbines

One of the main drawbacks of wind turbines is the fact that for maximum efficiency, the power that they generate must be fed into the grid right as the wind is blowing and their blades are spinning. While that power can be stored in batteries for later use, some of it will always be lost in the process. Swedens experimental new SeaTwirl system, however, is designed to kinetically store wind energy until its required - its basically a seagoing flywheel.

Topics: Offshore Wind

Citicar: wind powered electric car

Dave demonstrates his wind powered Citicar. The 1976 Citicar can go 35-40 miles an hour. It is powered by a 1 kW wind turbine called Bergey. The car takes 10-12 and sometimes even 15 hours to get charged.

Topics: Onshore Wind ,Electric, Hybrid and Plug in Hybrid Electric Cars

Maglev Wind Turbine

Current bearing technology has forced wind turbine designers into horizontal spindle three bladed wind turbines. In the proposed 2GW Magnetic Leviatated wind Turbine the huge blades are connected to a spindle in the center. The bearings that support the spindle and control the pitch of the blades (which can be hundreds of feet long) see huge pitch-moment loading, some of which is manifest as torque energy that is focused through the center spindle. The target speed for the spindle is 18 or 20 rpm and the bearings holding the spindle are mounted in a huge casting which also contains a large gearbox stepping the speed up to 1800 to 2000 RPMs which allows for the proper surface speed relationship between the coils and magnets. It is necessary to invert or condition the current, which is expensive. This gearbox is full of many large bearings, gears and castings; for a 2 MW turbine the gearbox can easily weigh 30 tons. This gearbox needs to be mounted on the top of a pole more than 150 feet in the air and be able to support the turbine blades under full-force wind conditions.

Topics: Onshore Wind ,Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

TED Talks: Saul Griffith- Kites as the future of renewable energy

In this brief talk, Saul Griffith unveils the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy.

Topics: Onshore Wind ,Small Wind ,Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Offshore wind farms

Energy means life: It heats houses, powers cars and lights megacities. The global appetite for energy is voracious, while resources are dwindling.

One third of the energy consumed worldwide is electricity and the trend is rising. The name of the key energy source of the future is energy efficiency. Optimal electricity use is achieved by harnessing smart semiconductor technology: Innovative chip solutions fine-tune cars, industrial plants, consumer and household electronics to use less energy. And smart meters permit evaluation of every kilowatt hour with to-the-minute accuracy, helping to save electricity.

The future of Wind Energy can be identified in offshore areas worldwide. Looking just at the North- and Baltic Sea, around 30 offshore wind farms are planned to come up in the next few years.

Tomorrows electricity grids will be smart. The electricity grids of the future will feed themselves locally from wind, sun and water. However peaks and troughs are inevitable. Smart grids will control the power supply and demand thus ensuring a reliable flow of current.

Topics: Offshore Wind

Offshore Wind Farm In UK

Offshore Wind Farm In UK

Magnetic Levitation VAWT

This vertical axis wind turbine uses a permanent magnetic bearing to support the vertical forces. Only small conventional bearings are needed to support the side forces. Next additions will be hall effect sensor to log rpm and PIC processor to record RPM, voltage and current
and allow us to cross correlate with our weather station wind data which is being archived. This will allow us to determine whether design modifications help or hinder power output.

Neodymium ring magnets (2 x 1/2) are used for the actual levitation. These same magnets are used in the alternator thus reducing the number of different parts needed to build the turbine. Small roller blade bearings are used to handle the side forces.

World's first floating wind turbine

The worlds first floating wind turbine has been towed to sea in a pilot project aimed at creating future wind farms miles off shore where the wind can be very strong.