Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: The Future of Micro Wind? [w/video]
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Another design I saw scattered throughout the show floor were those that integrated small solar and wind together on the same unit (top photo and photo below). The unit below integrates both solar and wind onto a single 400W streetlight platform.
The turbine itself is a “GUS” from a company called Tangarie which features a reflective coating that reduces glare and can even be slathered with an advertisement or a state flag of Texas, as is the one below. The complete solar/wind/streetlight/pole package (made by another company altogether) costs about $7,000, not including installation.
There will undoubtedly be substantial growth in the niche sector of vertical-axis wind turbines, especially in urban settings. Personally, I think this technology could best be applied in poorer countries to help address the most basic of energy needs, like lighting and light-duty water pumping.
Other Posts on Small and Micro Wind Energy:
“Top Five Micro Wind Turbines”
“Liveblogging from WINDPOWER 2008: Photos of Small Wind Turbines”
“Small Wind Remains in Farm Bill”
All Photos © Timothy B. Hurst
*Thanks again to the American Wind Energy Association for travel and conference support.
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June 20th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Awesome to see these getting the publicity they deserve! People may also want to check out the beautiful Helix Wind turbines that I came across last April at the Green California Summit. Wrote a piece about them here: http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/04/18/bringing-wind-power-down-to-earth/
June 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
These are beautiful, but I wonder how their efficiency works out in comparison to a more traditional turbine? A feb 2008 article in mother earth news indicates that we have a long ways to go:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2008-02-01/Wind-Power-Horizontal-and-Vertical-Axis-Wind-Turbines.aspx
Alas!
June 21st, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Peter,
Thanks for that great link to Mother Earth News – lots of good stuff in there. I’ll give it a more thorough read later this weekend.
June 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
i want one of those so bad. it’s like art that pays you for letting it sit near/on your house.
June 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
VAWT should be installed on every power, light, and utilitiy pole where it make sense to do so. Think of the thousands of miles of U.S highway that could be used for power generation. This is a no brainer.
June 21st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I’m sure that they will not be cheap enough for the regular American to deploy one at home.
June 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I too believe that the Vertical Access Wind Turbines (VAWT) can and will be a viable source of renewable energies in the coming years. The Helix Wind (http://www.helixwind.com) group look to be releasing their product this year and boy are they good looking!
June 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Nice, Wind is an excellent source of energy.
JT
http://www.FireMe.to/udi
June 21st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
[...] that’s the sound bite; read the Wind Turbines 101 story [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 7:18 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 7:53 pm
The Butler VAWT design has been subject to patents applications going back some 100 years or so. Incl mine (rejected in 1992).
There is so much potential to farms of these over the classic horizontal design. These and solar are the wave of the future.
Click through http://muthaofinvention.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-windmill.html and to see more videos of the butler design.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] June 22, 2008, 1:46 am Filed under: Life | Tags: CleanTechnica, go green Check this article out: Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines from [...]
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
[...] Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: The Future of Micro Wind? with video Walking the floor of WINDPOWER 2008, the annual conference and trade show for the wind energy industry, one couldn
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 am
how about the life of the battery which use to store the electricity generated by these wind turbine or solar panel? when the battery expired, it post an environment problem as I guess it is not recyclable and the lifespan of the battery last only 5 years.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:26 am
I recently covered this event for my Green energy news portal / blog.
Go here
http://mattgoesgreen.com/category/windpower-2008-conference-and-exhibition/
Lots of phtotos of the show including many many differenet turbines as wells as some video interviews etc.
-Enjoy
-Matt
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 am
the only think is that from what i have read vertical-axis turbines do not do well in places that ice could build up on the blades
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 am
Darius and airfoil-type VAWT’s have similar efficiency numbers as the more traditional horizontal axis wind tubrines, however they have a major drawback of NOT being self-starting. If you just place a stationary turbine in the wind, it will not start on it own, you need to get it moving to some threshold RPM after which it begin to generate power on its own. Having a starting mechanism adds to the expense and complexity.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 am
Great article on wind energy! I like the stats you mention on vertical axis turbines and there efficiencies over more conventional wind turbines.
I have also been blogging about vertical axis wind turbines on a residential scale over at http://www.residential-wind-power.com/category/vertical-axis-wind-turbine/
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 am
The turbines in the top picture are a combination of two different rotors. The Savonius rotors in the center of the turbine are self starting and work in lower windspeeds, but are not efficient in higher winds. The eggbeater shaped bands around them are a Darrieus rotor, which needs a push to get started, but is very efficient in higher windspeeds. Combining the two has been done before, although perhaps not in a mass produced product.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome is very interested in this technology as part of its overall mission of promoting clean tech and innovation.
Learn more about the project at
http://www.FSGE.net
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
That helical Savonius turbine is interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen a helical configuration of one of those before. Looks nice. Curious if it has any significant performance improvement over the normal variety.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Here’s an idea…
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could design a wind energy kit for cars – an easy add-on kit to improve mpg by generating wind-power electricity while traveling at speed?
get in touch if you think this is possible.
lihan.mindseye@gmail.com
July 10th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
In the southwest deserts we have used wind driven turbines for years to draw the hot air from our attics to reduce the heat load of the roof on the home. They spin wildly during the days when there is no much wind. Why can’t this be combined with a small vertical generator to achieve both reduced cooling loads and some of the power needed to energize the homes?
July 13th, 2008 at 1:49 am
To Bob Aman: helix configuration allows a flatter profile of torque unlike a straight savonius where the torque fluctuates depending on the orientation of the wind turbine against the wind.
To Li Han: adding something that will increase drag will increase fuel consumption. if you can extract energy from the relative movement of the wind with respect to the car, that will definitely be lesser than the input energy from consuming more fuel because of drag.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Great website with lots of information. Where can I find a list of local (I’m in Washington, DC) or national wind turbine installers?
Thanks! Kelly Vielmo – kvielmo@gmail.com
August 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am
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August 23rd, 2008 at 3:17 am
I have not been able to locate contact info for the Taiwanese start-up A.N.I.T.A. Energy ….can you help to provide their website or other contact info?
Many thanks,
Saed Taweel
August 29th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
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December 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
In the town that I live in off Nantucket sound oponents of the wind farm that is proposed have bene fighting the wind power plans of nearly every person that wants to install a wind turbine on there property.
Tower heights, lot line set backs, etc.
Vertical wind turbines look so great and would not have so much oposition. I would love to have one or two of these on my roof. And it is nearly always windy here. And I think they are very apealing to the eye. I WANT ONE!!
GS
December 13th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I work for WindEnergy7.com We design, develop, and fabricate small wind/solar hybrid systems. In all the designs that we have reviewed, none of the vertical designs stand up to the top of class horizontal axis small wind turbines. The three bladed horizontal axis design is simply a smaller version of successful wind power designs used for utility scale. These are a sideshow diversion and I don’t believe will ever succeed in RESULTS over existing designs on the market. There’s a reason there’s no data on most of them.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 am
Im a final year mechanical engineering student at the Papua New Guinea University of technology, doing my project on vertical axis wind turbines. Any information you can provide will be much appreciated.
cheers!
March 27th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Sounds wonderful! QUICK QUESTIONS: How much does one cost? How noisy is this product (in decibles).
Thank you!
Mary
March 28th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I like the idea of putting these vertical turbines near existing power lines. So much of the country side is being ruined by the huge old fashioned turbines.
But how is the sound level, which is a problem for the big turbines. Also, can they be low to the ground?
May 5th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Wind power has been cheap enough for home deployment for over 100 years.
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 am
The cost of our vawt is about USD20,000 for a 10kw unit
September 14th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Check these VAWT’s out..these GUS turbines are the state of the art,
and affordable.
The copy-cats are 50% more expensive and produce less power.
GUS Vertical Wind Turbines…100% bird and bat safe!!
Nothing else comes close!
go to:
http://www.wildnaturesolutions.com/windturbines