The Expo had so many attractions, it would be virtually impossible to list them all. Most of the display booths in the Expo were devoted to the traditional horizontal axis wind turbines. I spent 2 full days there and still didn’t come close to seeing it all. It really opened my eyes to some of the “infrastructure” involved with the wind industry.
When you see the windturbines in use, you don’t see everything that preceded their use – like the manufacturing of the different components, transport, erection not to mention all of the preliminary details.
You have to select a location. In selecting a location, it’s a good idea to measure the wind. There are several services that do this or provide the equipment to do this. An anemometer is a wind speed measuring device. They can be combined with other devices that will measure everything from atmospheric density to moisture content. I talked with Allison Minogue with Second Wind Inc. She was showing one of their multi-function units(pictured).
Allison with her anemometer
The location has to be within an accepted distance from the power transfer lines. The final destination of the components to build the turbines is usually done by truck
or rail, so there must be some sort of access to the site. Erection cranes and heavy equipment are often times necessary. All of this requires a coordinated effort. Of course, you hope to have properly working equipment.
Platform of erection equipment
One of the places to help with this is the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. I learned from talking with Harold Simmons, one of the institutes staff engineers, that they have a “rotating machinery section” devoted to developing better components.
There were experts on electrical service, turbine braking, manufacturing, specialized tools, bearings, composite materials, towers, metals and just about anything you can think of dealing with wind power. Several areas of the globe were represented. From Germany to China, Korea, Australia, Italy, Greece, Japan, India, several locations in the U.S. and Canada, just to mention a few.
Brake disc for stopping turbine blades
Next week, I’ll touch on vertical axis as opposed to the more traditional horizontal axis wind turbines. I’ll end this week with a couple more interesting pics and give a link to seeing my first working wind turbine.
Till next week, May God Bless You and all of your activities. Tim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfv5uZAsNw My first working homebuilt wind turbine
Please leave a comment, suggestion or a question by clicking on the “comment” link immediately following this post.
This will be my last week on strictly VAWT’s. A quick lesson on the two basic types of VAWT’s. The first type is called the “lift-based” turbines. These turn faster than the speed of the wind due to aerodynamic design. The second basic type is “drag-based” turbines. The blades, cups, paddles or some type of wind catching device do not exceed the speed of the wind, such as anemometers used to measure wind speed.
Tangerie's Helical VAWT
Green EnerG Bladed Windturbine
I’ll start off with a few more “lift-based” VAWT’s that I was able to view at the Expo. There were several different designs, like “eddy” from Urban Green Energy(preview 2 weeks ago), HiVAWT’s small 300 watt wind turbine(previewed last week), JL CarbonFree Energy Co.’s FDC-S series of helical wind turbines, the “Gale” line of helical VAWT’s from Tangarie, residential VAWT’s by Gentle Breeze, Synergy Viridis with their line of small VAWT’s and 2 or 3 others I didn’t get a chance to visit any in depth.
Since I’ve already previewed “eddy” and HiVAWT, I’ll briefly go over the remainder of mentioned VAWT’s. JL CarbonFree Energy FDC-S series of helical wind turbines display was represented by a pearly white, direct driven permanent magnetic system with no magnetic brush, requiring practically no maintenance. Their site is: www.carbonfreeenergy.cn. See picture.
JL CarbonFree Energy FDC-S
Tangarie, a woman owned company, that manufactures and distributes the “Gale” line of VAWT’s, as well as other related services and products in the renewable energy arena. You can view their site at: www.tangerie.com. Their helical VAWT pictured.
The display by Gentle Breeze of their residential VAWT was one of fluid motion. I wish my video of this turbine was clear enough to publish but alas… I have included a picture of Miwa Kashiwagi in front of their residential model. You can access their site at: www.gentlebreeze.com.
Miwa Kashiwagi beside Gentle Breeze VAWT
The final “lift-based” VAWT that I was able to visit at the 2010 Windpower Expo was a display by Synergy Viridis. They also had a small, residential VAWT available. You can visit their site at: www.SynergyViridis.com
There were several “drag-based” VAWT’s, if you want to count all of the anemometer displays. Other than that, I visited one booth with a “drag-based” VAWT. It was a good display of a VAWT from Sauer Energy. It was made with a “dimpled” surface, same drag reduction principal as a golf ball. Their site can be viewed at: www.sauerenergy.com. I’ve included a picture of this “drag-based” VAWT to give you an idea of it’s appearance.
I have most of the pictures labeled so you know which is which, hopefully. Till next week, May God Bless You. Tim p.s. please leave any comments, questions or suggestions by clicking on the “comments” link immediately following this post.
Last week I wrote briefly about Nick Blitterswyk of Urban Green Energy. One of Nick’s Vertical Axis Wind Turbine designs, nicknamed “eddy” was the focus of my article. I had several emails asking about the nickname given to his 600 watt rated VAWT so I asked Nick this week how they came up with the name “eddy”. He replied that “eddy” was taken partly from the well known concept of an eddy often seen in rivers…(and they thought) it was a cute name to give the turbine its own identity.” I know, it made me feel a certain warmth, akin to familiarity. Thanks again for the info, Nick.
This week, I’m going to tell a little about one of the other Vertical Axis Wind Turbines I saw at the Expo. Just as I was finishing my visit to the Wind Power Expo, I crossed paths with another young man named Morris Lin with Hi-VAWT Technology Corp.
HiVAWT - Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
Morris was very well versed on his company’s wind turbines. He showed me some marvelous, short clips featuring several styles of wind turbines and solar panels. He explained that the Vertical Axis Wind Turbines from his company had several advantages.
Grid tie or stand alone
Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the “drag based” VAWT I saw at the Expo. It’s hard to come back down to earth after being at this wind power expo, I have to actually “work” building some of my own “garage built” wind turbines. They don’t have the aerodynamics or sophistication of some of the turbines I saw at the expo but they do work.
See you next week. May God Bless You. Tim
P.S. I have a friend, Diane Tegarden, who is in the running for an Oprah Winfrey talk show. I know Diane is very environmentally conscious. I voted for her and hope you will, too. Vote for her at this link:http://myown.oprah.com/audition/
Happy day after Memorial Day. Hope you had as good a Memorial Day as me and my family. One of my “out of town” brothers and sis’n law stopped in for a visit. Only in this country, through all of our fallen heroes, we celebrate them with Memorial Day. Enjoyed the visit bro and sis’n law.
eddy vertical axis wind turbine
Since this day after is still part of the Memorial Day celebration, I’ll just lightly touch on my time in Dallas at the 2010 Wind Power expo. It was a truly memorable time. I made several new friends with some very excited people. This week, I’ll introduce you to one of the first people I met and tell you a little about him.
Me and Nick in front of eddy
I would like to thank Joanne Barber for setting me up a time to talk to Nick and Nick for taking the time to talk with me.
The 2010 Windpower expo had a vast majority of traditional horizontal axis turbines and all aspects of transporting, erecting and maintaining them that the vertical axis wind turbines showcased were few and far between. I personally believe that vertical axis has a tremendous future and I will highlight some more of them in the next coming articles over the next few weeks. Make sure to be here to see some of these unique powerplants.
Make the most of what we already have, renewable energy. God Bless Tim
spiral wind more spiral wind wind converter spiral wind
propulsion wind spiral drag wind inflatable wind earth spiral
There are as many workable types of wind turbines as there are hairs on your head(my head at least). I’m in Dallas for the 2010 Windpower expo. I’ll have some really cool pics and 1st hand info for you over the next few weeks.
I’m going to cut short the writing and include a few more pics.
Blue Energy Plain & Simple Windside Wind Broadstar Wind
Beautiful Earth Helical Design H-rotor Design place your wind
Hope to see you next week. I’ll have some exciting, new information from the experts.
Till then, May God Bless You Tim
“Actual vertical axis wind turbine”
“Actual three-bladed prop wind turbine.”
Avoiding Wind Turbine Scams
While looking at various sites on the web, I started noticing some sites wanting to charge around $50 for windturbine plans. The thing I noticed was claims that their windturbines will provide 80% of your home electrical needs and should only cost a couple of hundred dollars to build. I’ve got beachfront property I’ll sell you in Florida, cheap.(I hope you don’t beleive either)
There are many places on the web that will provide realistic, working plans for free.
Another area to watch out for – wind turbine ratings. Some turbines have estimated ratings based solely on the math, others are rated according to the turbines output during ideal conditions and other ratings are totally estimated. Look for actual functioning ratings under several wind conditions.
Ask questions:
Do I have enough wind to make using a wind turbine feasable?
What type of wind turbine would be the best for my local wind conditions?
How does a vertical axis wind turbine compare with conventional blade turbines?
What is the efficiency of the turbine?
How does the turbine handle in “poor” wind?
What about vibration and noise? Maintenance? Cost?
If you are seriously considering using a wind turbine, research, research, research. There is a wealth of information out there.
Just a quick note on the vertical axis wind turbines this week. There are two broad classifications or designs: 1) lift based and 2) drag based. As an easy description, an anemometer(wind speed measuring device) is an example of a drag based wind turbine. The ends of the cups never exceed the speed of the wind. It is always assigned a Top Speed Ratio(TSR) of 1 or less. A wind turbine designed in aerodynamic fashion can achieve speeds over the speed of the wind. They are assigned TSRs greater than 1. There are several examples of each in use today.
I came across a cool site with free instructions on building a drag based wind turbine. Very simple instructions can be found at – http://www.re-energy.ca/pdf/wind-turbine.pdf
I’ll be visiting the 2010 Windpower event in Dallas the 21st through the 27th of this month. I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn with you. Next week I’ll address the questions I posed this week along with some other neat facts about wind turbines. Till then, May God Bless You, Tim
Vertical Axis Windturbines vs. Conventional Axial Configuration(usually 3 bladed) Wind Turbines
To many, including myself, a wind turbine is a structure of beauty, sort of poetry in motion. During the time I’ve spent around wind turbines and wind farms, the motion of the blades and the sound synchronous with the blade motion(whooshing sound) is relaxing to me. The wind is usually brisk and not as relaxing.
Some people that live in a close proximity to the wind farms really don’t care for the (whooshing) sound and are not usually too wild about the visual impact of conventional axial (usually 3 bladed) wind turbines.
Traditional axial mount wind turbine
A vertical axis wind turbine offers many advantages and some disadvantages. Two of the main advantages are, 1) vertical axis wind turbines are almost totally silent – even at high speed and load, and 2) vertical axis wind turbines have the perception of lower visual impact – improved public acceptance.
On the other hand, some of the disadvantages are vertical axis wind turbines require more complicated engineering, they are very intollerant of poor aerodynamics and they incur higher blade stresses.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some of the other design options. I’ll have some more pics and discuss some more of the pros and cons of the different designs. I design, build and sell a smaller scale but workable line of windturbines that I’ll be sharing with you.
I look forward to hearing from you. You can send me a comment, question or suggestion by clicking on the “comments” link immediately following this article. May the Good Lord Bless You and Yours Tim
New Technology, Amazing Innovation
One of the articles I came across this past week was entitled, “New technology generates energy from moving vehicles”. The picture I immediately formed in my mind was along the lines of an alternator( using rotation of the motor or tires) to generate enough energy to propel the vehicle. Boy, was I off base. With a little closer look at the article, I could see the generated energy was not for the vehicle but generated in specified areas on the road for most anything requiring(limited) electrical energy. The energy is generated by moving vehicles passing over these devices, that are placed strategically on the roadways. The vehicles provide kinetic energy, which is then harvested by these devices. You can view the article and get more details about this “new technology” by clicking on the following link: www.ecoseed.org.
Man’s ability to innovate never ceases to amaze me. This article begs me to ask more questions, like, how much electricity can this generate?, of course how much in costs will it take to implement such a system?, is it cost effective?, what tests of this system have been done or are scheduled? and many more. What are some of the questions or comments that this evokes from you?
Please leave me any of your questions, comment and/or suggestions by clicking on the “comments” link immediately following this post. Let me know if there are any areas in alternative/renewable energy that you would like to see by clicking the “comments” link or sending me a personal e-mail to timsjs@yahoo.com.
See you again next week. May the Good Lord Bless You Tim
Woodglen Park Solar Subdivision Revisited
On this beautiful, sunny day at the end of April 2010, I revisited Woodglen Park
solar subdivision in Little Rock, AR. All of the Energy Star homes in this development are required to furnish a minimum of 50% of their electrical needs with solar energy.
4300 square foot beauty in Woodglen
The author, architect and “main boss man” of this (unique to this area) project is
William (Bill) Ball, owner of Stellar Sun (the premier alternative energy business in Arkansas). (Refer to archived post of 08/03/09.)
I last visited Woodglen Park the last of June 2009. I was curious as to what changes had transpired there since my last visit. When I entered Woodglen Park, I encountered Bill at the first home in the division. The home, a 4300 square foot beauty that was nearing completion during my last visit, was completed and waiting for the new owners to move in.
Energy Star Winner
Bill mentioned the 3400 square foot home on the adjacent lot had an electric bill of only $12 last month, with the highest electric bill being only $60.(and I thought my $65 electric bill last month for my less than 2000 square foot home was something to “crow” about) This home was awarded the “Most Efficient Home in Arkansas” by Energy Star. The solar array accounted for production of around 600KWh for the month. (maybe that explains why my bill is higher)
Other lots were being developed but Bill said there are still several excellent choices available.
Woodglen Park lot development for new home - 2010
Bill was instrumental in creating the framework for some Arkansas State incentives that took effect around 4 weeks ago conscerning alternative energy use. This pilot program, entitled the “Renewable Technology Rebate Fund” covers solar hot water heat, photovoltaics and wind (energy). The program can be viewed in detail at: www.dsireusa. Bill said this program was derived from a program called “Refit AR “. 
Many thanks to Bill, again. I enjoyed our visit as much as the first time. It’s really a treat to be able to “rub elbows” with a person that has done so much for the alternative energy scene.
At this time, I’m working on a couple of possibilities for next weeks post. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I invite you to submit them. Just click on the “comments” link immediately following this article.
Till next week, May the Lord Bless You and Yours. Tim
3 Considerations to Think About Conscerning Your Investment in a Solar or Wind Energy System
It would definitely benefit you to consider your 1) local climate, 2) utility rates and 3) incentives. There are many other factors
to consider: Your current energy usage, utility costs, cost of purchasing your system and labor to install it, financial incentives, geographical location and much more than can be covered by this short article.
1) One of the first considerations of how practical it would be should be taking into account your local climate. Though we have abundant sunlight in most geographical locations in the U.S., lower lattitude states have more direct sunlight. Other areas use tilting mounts to gather more sunlight. To make your solar panels worthwhile, you need to average 6+ hours of direct sunlight each day. Local climate is also a major consideration for wind turbines.
A good rule of thumb is “if you get enough wind to constantly get your attention” you probably have enough wind to justify the expense of a wind turbine. This is just a very basic guide, there is a wealth of info for those of you considering a move to alternative energy.
2) Utility rates are yet another consideration. In most cases, grid supplied power is still less expensive. As I say, “most”, there are exceptions.
One of the main considerations is your location. If your a ways off from the grid and the cost of connection is prohibitive, it might pay you to install your own system. The cost of utilities goes up with inflation, not the cost of a loan to purchase a system.
3) The last area I’ll touch on today is incentives. Incentives can be broken down into direct and indirect.
Your direct incentives include such things as local, state and federal tax credits, rebates and subsidies. Other performance based incentives are available.
Indirect incentives include, but are not limited to: property resale value increase, a lot smaller “carbon footprint”, satisfaction with having produced energy yourself and the aesthetic beauty of “no power lines”, just to mention a few.
This is just a very brief and hopefully informative description of some of the steps to take to implement your own solar or wind system. I’ve listed a few helpful link for you: Database of State Incentives for Renewble and Efficiency – dsireusa.org. If your state doesn’t offer any incentives, you can still earn and income for your produced power by selling your RECs(Renewable Energy Certificates, green tags). You can check current REC pricing at: eere.energy.gov/green
power/markets.
Please click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this article to leave any questions or comments you may
have. Next week, if all goes as planned, I’ll have a surprise “traveling” interview. Till then, May God Bless You
Tim