Vertical Axis Wind Turbine With Push and Pull

Sterling D. Allan writes "After 10 years of prototyping, wind tunnel testing, patenting, and tweaking, Ron Taylor of Cheyenne (windy) Wyoming is ready to take his vertical axis wind turbine into commercial production. Design creates pull on the back side contributing to 40%+ wind conversion efficiencies. Because it spins at wind speed, it doesn't kill birds, and it runs more quietly. It also doesn't need to be installed as high, and it can withstand significantly higher winds (can generate in winds up to 70 mph, compared to ~54 mph tops for propeller designs). Generating costs estimated at 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, putting it in the lead pocket-book-wise not just of wind and solar, but of conventional power as well. Production prototype completion expected in 5-7 months."

Well

[Astronomypete]

Well blow me down!

Re:Sorry...

[evil-osm]

Yeah they do seem to let off alot of hot air don't they.

Let's get this all out of the way at once

[lheal]

No, this guy is not full of hot air. He's not all bluster.

The technology does blow everything else away.

Yes, it will succeed, and not just in vertical markets.

It really took some gust to work on this.
----

Now I have to go back to bed in a fit of self-loathing.

Re:Sorry...

[Mr. Underbridge]

...but I don't take anything "Open Source Energy News" posts seriously anymore. It seems like every post that comes from them is a crackpot.

Gee, ya think? Next you'll tell me that the interesting newspapers in the supermarket checkout don't perform rigorous fact checking. And I was so hoping to meet Elvis and bigfoot.

Uses up the wind

[backslashdot]

Yes, and even worse, it uses up the wind.

In Solviet Russia....

[W3BMAST3R101]

In Solviet Russia.... Wind Turbines Turn You.

Re:Doesn't kill birds?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that if a bird gets caught in there, he can still be killed easily?

Yeah, but don't worry, it only targets the male birds

Rotating doors to light the bulbs

[jurt1235]

Maybe I could adjust rotating doors in shops to this design. Than it can power the lights or something like that. With enough wind, people will get sweeped into the store by this system too.

Re:Doesn't kill birds?

[slamkoder]

Is it really an advantage that it doesn't kill birds in these H5N1 times?

Re:For some values of "ready"

[Anonymous Coward]

Bill - you need to get in touch with us immediately! Aunt Emma left you over one million dollars in her will! I can't post with my real identity right now for legal reasons, but PLEASE call me right away!

Bob

Re:Lots of details

[Dracolytch]

Did you say centripital force?

(Has a heart attack and falls over dead)

I'm sorry, you're using correct terminology and appear to know what you're talking about. I'm afraid I'll have to show you the door.

~D

Re:Uses up the wind

[Gadgetfreak]

Though you'd have to appreciate the fact that if these were implemented in power generation for public utilities, some of that power would be used for cooking poultry...

Though I'd assume more of it would also go towards powering many, many fans.

"Push and Pull"

[Ginnungagap42]

So it both blows AND sucks?

Re:Uses up the wind

[superbondbond]

Sometimes I wish that were true.

As I live in Wyoming, we have plenty of wind to spare.

Please take some.

This is a serious issue...

[mdielmann]

Wind farms do less damage to the environment than any other form of power generation other than solar, and kill fewer birds than the windowed office building that would be built to house the adiminstration for any form of power plant.

This is a serious issue and needs to be addressed! How did solar power get away with causing so little damage?? I propose that all solar arrays be built slightly concave, and reflect most of the light they don't absorb (we don't want to reduce efficiency), creating giant death rays. This way we can ignite birds that fly through the kill zone and correct this serious deficiency.

In an unrelated issue, I'd also like some serious effort to be put into breeding chickens that can fly.

Re:Sorry...

[ozbon]

Even Heinz Tomato Source? *grin*

Re:I think Slashdot is being had

[eutychus_awakes]

Shhhh! I'm in the process of drafting an article about my Open-Source, DRM-enabled, Rootkit Deployable Space Elevator Control Module complete with Socket-F support and Carbon Nanotube flux control. It's cool. And it's 50% more efficient than anything being done today. The only thing holding me back is the RIAA and MPAA. . .

Re:Uses up the wind

[xs650]

Then let's attach one to /.

Birds are the tip of the iceberg

[Dr. Cody]

When I was in the Netherlands last year, I toured a large wind park north of Groningen. There, under the turbines, I saw a total of:

1 dead bird
1 dead sheep

From this, we can deduce that wind turbines are equally as deadly to sheep as they are to birds. The 800-1300 sheep killed annually must make the Altamont Pass a bloodbath of truely horrific proportions.

But seriously, folks...

The Altamont Pass is a disaster which was produced by irresponsible economic incentives of the time which put up low quality turbines willy-nilly throughout California. Add to that the fact that many of Altamont Pass's are placed on angle-iron framework towers. These make them ideal nesting grounds--well, if one ignores the 30 m food processor out front. Modern towers take great care in leaving no place for avian habitation.

This park's would otherwise be just a regional problem, but, thanks to more animal-focused environmental groups, and the tabloids who eat up their press releases, that wind park is biting us over here in Europe in the ass.

Altamont Pass is, however, the only wind park on earth with this level of environmental impact. Nothing comes close in these regards. A substantially larger off-shore wind park off the coast of Denmark (Knoetby, I think) actually showed that the birds weren't scared off, but instead kept a distance of about 150 m from the equipment.

I hate statements like this.

[Moofie]

"The back pressure creates a vortex that pulls it around, turning drag into lift,"

Every time people say such things in a marketing blurb, an aerodynamicist dies. Clap your hands! Clap your hands to save them!

Re:Birds are the tip of the iceberg

[Chris Burke]

There, under the turbines, I saw a total of:

1 dead bird
1 dead sheep

Where they near each other? I see two possibilities:
1) Bird gets smacked by turbine blade beak-first into sheep's temple, killing it. The solution to this problem would be to sharpen the blades, so instead of striking the bird like a baseball it would cut them in half so the two halves would fall at normal speed to the ground.
2) The sheep, being of a species well known for their craven cowardice and deep cunning (they only act stupid so as not to appear threatening), saw the dead bird, and upon considering the environmental implications, died of a heart attack. The solution to this problem is to give sheep internet access so they can research the problem themselves.

The Altamont Pass is a disaster which was produced by irresponsible economic incentives of the time which put up low quality turbines willy-nilly throughout California. Add to that the fact that many of Altamont Pass's are placed on angle-iron framework towers. These make them ideal nesting grounds--well, if one ignores the 30 m food processor out front. Modern towers take great care in leaving no place for avian habitation.

Just for everyone's convenience, here's a link [thewatt.com] to a page which shows the old-style tower and the new style and the obvious difference it would make in problems with perching and nesting. There's also the non-obvious scale difference, with the new larger one being much safer due to slower and thus easier to see/avoid blades. It also has per-turbine death rates for birds for various sites, with Altamont being much higher in raptor deaths than the others.

The Environut-Tape Letters

[iamlucky13]

To be quite fair to the grandparent, I've heard plenty of self-proclaimed environmentalists complain about aesthetics. Usually, though, they find some easier to argue position like "we have to think of the birds." Talking energy with them typically goes something like this:

Environut: Global warming is going to kill us all. We have to stop the evil oil companies bent of world destruction.

Engineer: Well then, let's invest some money in clean, reliable nuclear power plant design

Environut: Are you kidding. Those things are radioactive and they meltdown all the time. Plus Tom Brokaw says terrorists can blow them up with molotav cocktails and kill us all.

Engineer: I don't think you understand the issue fully, but ok, how about natural gas.

Environut: I heard through from my neighbor's, best friend's, third cousin who is an expert in environmental peace engineering at Evergreen Community College that natural gas tankers can explode with the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Engineer: The stored gas has equivalent chemical energy, yes, but it's release is dependent on the oxygen that can be supplied. The absolute worst case scenario is a really big fire. Still, if you're not comfortable with that, how about hydro power in locations where it's available?

Environut: Disrupts salmon spawning.

Engineer: Wind power?

Environut: Kills birds

Engineer: Geothermal?

Environut: Haven't you seen Core? You'll stop the earth's core from spinning, cause earthquakes, and kill the yellowstone geysers. Engineer: Umm, how about tidal generators for coastal cities?

Environut: Absolutely not. They destroy the reefs to build them and devastate the shoreline ecostructure by reducing wave action

Engineer: How about investing in Fusion research?

Environut: Doesn't that involve atoms? I don't like atoms and I think they should be banned by international treaty because terrorists can build dirty bombs out of them.

Engineer: I suppose you have something against solar power too?

Environut: Oh no. I love solar power. It will save us from global warming, cure world hunger, end racism, and get Barbara Streisand elected president.

Engineer: Well, it does have its benefits, but it's only practical in a limited part of the world and it's currently nowhere near as cost-effective as other forms of energy production

Environut: I knew it! You're just another puppet for big oil. Why do you hate the baby seals? What did they ever do to you? Murderer!

Ok, that's exagerated a little bit, but I bet if I pulled snippets from enough old posts on Slashdot, I could come up with that conversation without too much trouble.

Re:Birds don't hover but bats do...

[GreekPimpSlap]

"I was at the UK national Bat conference this years"

Man, and i thought I was a geek