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Rhiannon12866

(203,019 posts)
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 03:04 AM Sep 2017

The future of wind turbines could be bladeless

With their considerable height and large blades turning almost hypnotically, wind turbines have become an iconic symbol of the planet's shift to renewable sources of energy.

In Spain, however, one business is looking to design wind generators that produce renewable energy without blades.

"Our goal is to develop a new wind generator that minimize(s) the amount of mechanical elements to reduce the maintenance costs and… environmental impact," David Yanez, co-founder of Spanish business Vortex Bladeless, told CNBC's Sustainable Energy.

The design of Vortex's generators offers a potentially revolutionary shift from today's traditional designs, blades and all. One key facet of the Vortex design is that it uses less material than conventional turbines, meaning less maintenance as well as less noise.

More: (includes video) https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/29/the-future-of-wind-turbines-could-be-bladeless.html

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The future of wind turbines could be bladeless (Original Post) Rhiannon12866 Sep 2017 OP
It will be interesting to see if this design can actually deliver substantial megawatts at lower democratisphere Sep 2017 #1
Probably not William Seger Sep 2017 #2
Thanks for the research and the article. democratisphere Sep 2017 #3
That article doesn't explain how it works, either William Seger Sep 2017 #4
from that link pscot Sep 2017 #6
This is the original video I saw about this. OnlinePoker Sep 2017 #5

democratisphere

(17,235 posts)
1. It will be interesting to see if this design can actually deliver substantial megawatts at lower
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 06:19 AM
Sep 2017

wind speeds. I think bladed wind turbines are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

William Seger

(10,742 posts)
2. Probably not
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 08:43 AM
Sep 2017

I was annoyed that neither the article nor the video actually explained anything at all about the technology, so I did some searching and found several critical articles, such as: Bladeless Wind Turbine — Reality Check

democratisphere

(17,235 posts)
3. Thanks for the research and the article.
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 08:54 AM
Sep 2017

Looks like they are playing with toys that require very controlled conditions; certainly not real world conditions where megawatt summed to gigawatt devices are required. Mechanical bladed wind turbines are here to stay.

pscot

(21,023 posts)
6. from that link
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 11:32 PM
Sep 2017
The founders have no prior experience of any sort with wind or electrical generation or fluid dynamics for that matter. They made artificial noses and small electronic stuff in a couple of R&D ventures. Red flag.

OnlinePoker

(5,702 posts)
5. This is the original video I saw about this.
Sat Sep 30, 2017, 09:52 PM
Sep 2017

I think it was part of a crowd-funding campaign. As you can see, the original vision was for something much larger. I can't see those little ones in the video above being able to generate a lot of electricity.

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