Wind Power - Without the Handicaps
For millennia, humans have made use of the wind to power their boats and ships and for centuries, to power grinding mills and other machinery.
During the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries, this cleanest and most abundant source of energy was mostly supplanted by other sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels.
In the last half of the 20th and early part of the 21st centuries, because we see that fossil fuels will not last forever, and despoil the air and water we need to survive, this ancient source of energy has made a resurgence, but the technology used to exploit it has mostly remained unchanged since the 18th Century. The devices used to extract energy from the wind today must mostly be relegated to areas where there are few people to be disturbed by their noise and visual intrusion, or structures to be damaged should their propellers break and fly with the wind. These and other draw-backs to conventional wind energy devices have made the resurgence of wind energy slow and complicated it with the necessity to transmit the electricity made in remotely-located “wind farms” to the cities and suburbs, where it is to be used.
Now there is technology which can make wind power acceptable and safe in civilized society, and even make it capable of being wed to solar power generation, and clean forms of energy storage, which can help solve many of the handicaps of wind power generation, such as the variability and intermittent nature of wind.
The technology which can make wind power practical, safe and unobtrusive is called WinDynamo. This device uses a stationary outer structure to collect, accelerate and guide the moving air upward into two vortices, one upstream (below) and the other downstream of (above) a specially designed turbine mounted on a vertical drive shaft. The whirling air in the upstream (“drive”) vortex is redirected by the turbine blades, which are driven in the direction of rotation by the force of the direction change, and by aerodynamic lift generated by the airfoil shape of the blades. The downstream (“extraction”) vortex creates a very low-pressure area above the turbine, which enhances the speed and power with which the high-velocity air flows through the turbine.
The drive shaft driven by the turbine drives a multi-purpose, disk-shaped flywheel in the lower part of the device, with a cooling fan as a hub a specially designed fluid tank, which provides the mass to keep the system spinning during lulls in the wind and powerful permanent magnets mounted on its rim, which produce electrical current in stationary copper windings mounted on the inside of the wall of the flywheel chamber.
The flywheel’s fluid tank contains radial bulkheads with one-way valves, which allow the fluid (water + antifreeze) to flow through opposite the direction of rotation, but not in the direction of rotation, allowing the flywheel to accelerate easily, without the inertia of having to accelerate the entire mass of the fluid at once, but stirring the fluid, in a few seconds, up to the RPM of the tank. When the wind drops off, the one-way valves (“port-holes”) close, causing the entire mass of the fluid to provide the force to keep the system spinning until the next gust of wind.
Because it spins on a vertical axis, the drive train can be suspended in “passive” (permanent magnet) bearings, so that the moving part of the machine makes no physical contact with the stationary part. This eliminates the need for lubrication and greatly increases the serviceable life of the machine, and greatly reduces the need for costly maintenance.
The drive shaft of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a compressed-air turbine so that when the generator is producing more electricity than is needed, during low-demand or high-wind periods, the excess electricity can be used to compress air into large storage tanks, and the compressed air can be used to drive the WinDynamo generator when more electricity is needed than the wind currently blowing will produce.
The system can be regulated by a relatively simple computer, which is fed the shaft RPM, wind-speed, air temperature, barometric pressure, and other relevant information by sensors, and which controls a transformer, which adjusts the current flow through the electric coils, and compressed-air valve to control the RPM and provide the needed electricity, while making optimum use of whatever wind is blowing. The computer can also control a defrosting system to keep the machine operable in snow or ice storms. One of the nagging issues for wind farms has been damage from lightening strikes. The stationary outer cowlinf of the WinDynamo device allows for easy installation of lightening rods and grounding cables.
Unlike conventional propeller-type wind-energy conversion devices, the WinDynamo will be capable of producing electricity in very low and very high winds, and because it doesn’t need laminar air-flow and can use swirling and turbulent winds it will be deployable in areas (such as cities and suburbs) with many obstructions to wind flow.
The stationary outer cowling of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a mesh that will prevent birds, bats and air-borne debris from entering it, eliminating the last objection to wind energy development.
During the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries, this cleanest and most abundant source of energy was mostly supplanted by other sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels.
In the last half of the 20th and early part of the 21st centuries, because we see that fossil fuels will not last forever, and despoil the air and water we need to survive, this ancient source of energy has made a resurgence, but the technology used to exploit it has mostly remained unchanged since the 18th Century. The devices used to extract energy from the wind today must mostly be relegated to areas where there are few people to be disturbed by their noise and visual intrusion, or structures to be damaged should their propellers break and fly with the wind. These and other draw-backs to conventional wind energy devices have made the resurgence of wind energy slow and complicated it with the necessity to transmit the electricity made in remotely-located “wind farms” to the cities and suburbs, where it is to be used.
Now there is technology which can make wind power acceptable and safe in civilized society, and even make it capable of being wed to solar power generation, and clean forms of energy storage, which can help solve many of the handicaps of wind power generation, such as the variability and intermittent nature of wind.
The technology which can make wind power practical, safe and unobtrusive is called WinDynamo. This device uses a stationary outer structure to collect, accelerate and guide the moving air upward into two vortices, one upstream (below) and the other downstream of (above) a specially designed turbine mounted on a vertical drive shaft. The whirling air in the upstream (“drive”) vortex is redirected by the turbine blades, which are driven in the direction of rotation by the force of the direction change, and by aerodynamic lift generated by the airfoil shape of the blades. The downstream (“extraction”) vortex creates a very low-pressure area above the turbine, which enhances the speed and power with which the high-velocity air flows through the turbine.
The drive shaft driven by the turbine drives a multi-purpose, disk-shaped flywheel in the lower part of the device, with a cooling fan as a hub a specially designed fluid tank, which provides the mass to keep the system spinning during lulls in the wind and powerful permanent magnets mounted on its rim, which produce electrical current in stationary copper windings mounted on the inside of the wall of the flywheel chamber.
The flywheel’s fluid tank contains radial bulkheads with one-way valves, which allow the fluid (water + antifreeze) to flow through opposite the direction of rotation, but not in the direction of rotation, allowing the flywheel to accelerate easily, without the inertia of having to accelerate the entire mass of the fluid at once, but stirring the fluid, in a few seconds, up to the RPM of the tank. When the wind drops off, the one-way valves (“port-holes”) close, causing the entire mass of the fluid to provide the force to keep the system spinning until the next gust of wind.
Because it spins on a vertical axis, the drive train can be suspended in “passive” (permanent magnet) bearings, so that the moving part of the machine makes no physical contact with the stationary part. This eliminates the need for lubrication and greatly increases the serviceable life of the machine, and greatly reduces the need for costly maintenance.
The drive shaft of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a compressed-air turbine so that when the generator is producing more electricity than is needed, during low-demand or high-wind periods, the excess electricity can be used to compress air into large storage tanks, and the compressed air can be used to drive the WinDynamo generator when more electricity is needed than the wind currently blowing will produce.
The system can be regulated by a relatively simple computer, which is fed the shaft RPM, wind-speed, air temperature, barometric pressure, and other relevant information by sensors, and which controls a transformer, which adjusts the current flow through the electric coils, and compressed-air valve to control the RPM and provide the needed electricity, while making optimum use of whatever wind is blowing. The computer can also control a defrosting system to keep the machine operable in snow or ice storms. One of the nagging issues for wind farms has been damage from lightening strikes. The stationary outer cowlinf of the WinDynamo device allows for easy installation of lightening rods and grounding cables.
Unlike conventional propeller-type wind-energy conversion devices, the WinDynamo will be capable of producing electricity in very low and very high winds, and because it doesn’t need laminar air-flow and can use swirling and turbulent winds it will be deployable in areas (such as cities and suburbs) with many obstructions to wind flow.
The stationary outer cowling of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a mesh that will prevent birds, bats and air-borne debris from entering it, eliminating the last objection to wind energy development.
Comment
Featured Discussion
Twitter Feed
© 2009 Created by PickensPlan
Badges | Community Guidelines | Report an Issue | Privacy | Terms of Service
You need to be a member of PickensPlan to add comments!
Join this Ning Network