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A technology leap forward in wind energy? Or, as
the company in charge calls it, a "new paradigm" of
wind power, lowering costs, requiring no training,
using fewer supplies? They believe they have a
great idea and they aim to bring it to market. They
will start crowdfunding next month. The company is
Vortex Bladeless.
David Yanez, co-founder, Vortex Bladeless, said it
all began with a bridge disaster. The bridge, he
said, started swaying and oscillating in heavy
winds. This was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
collapse of 1940, and the event occurred under
40-mile-per-hour (64 km/h) wind conditions. The
collapse would in later years continue to be a topic
among engineers and scientists discussing the
aeroelastic flutter and motivating their research in
aeroelastics.
The structure, said Yanez, was caught up in
aeroelastic coupling. Yanez and team worked on
recreating similar conditions to lead to their
development of a bladeless wind turbine. Instead
of turning, the turbine oscillates, producing
movement and displacement, said Yanez. "The
system is based on the same principles as an alternator—electromagnetic induction." They multiply
that movement and speed magnetically—without
any gear assemblies or ball bearings. They turn the
mechanical energy of the structure into electricity.
Writing in Treehugger, Derek Markham,
commented : "The Vortex wind generator
represents a fairly radical break with conventional
wind turbine design, in that it has no spinning
blades (or any moving parts to wear out at all), and
looks like nothing more than a giant straw that
oscillates in the wind. It works not by spinning in the
wind, but by taking advantage of a phenomenon
called vorticity, or the Kármán vortex street, which
is a 'repeating pattern of swirling vortices.'"
Raul Martin, Vortex Bladeless co-founder, said,
"Compare our invention to a conventional wind
turbine with similar energy generation—ours would
cost significantly less," around 50 percent or 47
percent less. The company site said that Vortex
saves 53 percent in manufacturing costs and 51
percent in operating costs compared to
conventional wind turbines.
"Because there is no contact between moving
parts," said the Vortex site, "there is no friction.
Therefore no lubricant is required."
Graham in Treehugger said another advantage was
that "the devices can be used to generate more
power in less space, because not only is the wind
wake narrower than a traditional turbine, but
installing them closer together can actually be
beneficial to the technology, based on wind tunnel
testing."
The next step? Martin said the step will be to
develop a small 4-kilowatt turbine for small
businesses, distributed energy grids or individual
homes.