Thread: Wind turbines, new better way for wind energy?

Ok, I am no physicists, just an ecologist. I, like most of the population, worry about the environment and get exited when a new renewable energy system comes out.

I've fallen on this today,

http://www.flodesignwindturbine.org/

It's a new company, that came up with a radical new design on wind turbine. They've taken the anatomy of a jet engine turbine and made this new "prototype" wind turbine. There is a video showing how it works (here for the lazy http://www.flodesignwindturbine.org/turbine/index.php)

To me, it looks like a whole new leap in wind energy. I'd like the opinion of more people. As for wildlife concerns, I find it much better since it is small and much more compact and is more visible to a bird then a gigantic rotating blade that looks static from far but spins quite fast when you get close to it. I presume wildlife are less likely to fly into it.

Also, the fact that it is much more compact lets more be placed on small land size. The blades turn at a much more wide range of wind velocity's also.

I'll let you watch the video and see for your selves, no need for me to describe it entire. The length of the video is 5 minutes.

One thing they don't mention is the noise it makes, which from my experiences so far is the major plaint people have of the placement of wind turbines in their community. Also it is viewed as very ugly for many people. I will agree that its not a rolling plain to the ends of sight or beautiful lush vegetated mountain ranges, but we require energy and we need renewable energy, so some sacrifices must be made to sustain our way of living.

Put them out on the desert, then, or the mountains. Nobody to hear anything.

It might be the greatest thing since sliced bread or it might be a scam to get you to invest your money. There really isn't any way to know just by reading the promotional material on their web site.

This is not exactly new. Engineers thought about this one before and using modelling software one can show that the efficiency of the turbined goes up ny some percent using technology like the one you mentioned. The problem is that the whole shebang makes the turbines hellishly complicated to manufacture and the forces are not to be underestimated. This might be an option but the price is also somewhat steep.

I visited a wind farm near Lamar, Colorado last year and stood in the midst of the turbine field. I think there were 130 odd 1 MW turbines, but don't remember the exact number. The noise level was extremely low, and the noise was mostly drowned out by the wind. When the wind at ground level dropped you could barely hear a low rumble.

The operators said there was no evidence of increased bird deaths. There was a red tailed hawk sitting on a fence post. The operators claimed he had been there since before the facility was built and hadn't changed his hunting habits.

Just anecdotal, FWIW.

l heard from a professer at berkley that CaLlfornla would be covered wlth lt was elther the wlnd turblnes or maybe lt was solar panels to just get enough energy to power lt. l saw where speclflc places are better for the wlnd turblnes to be placed, l beLleve lt was under a rock Llke say a cLlff hang, and apparently these are the most populated areas so one downslde ls that the energy has to travel far dlstances. ldk, l hope lt works l guess. lol