Wind power might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you move off the grid. You might consider solar power or even building your own grid to remain self-sufficient. Instead, a company in Spain is making wind turbines easier to install, maintain and afford for those who don’t want to depend upon the power grid.
It seems that things are about to change and the wind of change comes from Spain. Vortex Bladeless it’s the company that is settled on changing the way we generate wind energy. It wants to do so by leaving the blade turbines behind.
Instead of capturing energy via the rotational motion of a turbine, the Vortex takes advantage of what’s known as vorticity, an aerodynamic effect that occurs when wind breaks against a solid structure (Kármán vortex street). The Vortex structure starts to oscillate, and captures the energy that is produced.
Classical wind turbines are not safe for birds as they often suffer from collision with the blades. Therefore, for their new design, the blades had to go. It is also silent since it oscillates at a frequency that doesn’t produce audible noise (it is below 20Hz).
According to the company the manufacturing costs will be reduced, since the Vortex integrates the tower and generator into one structure, requiring less moving parts and less material to produce the same amount of electricity. Manufacturing savings are roughly estimated at around 53 % of the usual wind turbine production cost. The manufacturing, transportation, construction and assembly will be also simplified and are typical for the wind industry.
But it seems not all is peachy. When it comes to efficiency, the Vortex is 30% less in energy conversion compared to classical wind turbines.
Regarding the lifetime of these new wind turbines things are looking good. Computational modeling estimates operational lifetime of the installation to be between 32 and 96 years.
This is a product that has already generated a lot of interest. The company already managed to gather more than $1 million from private capital and government funding.
If you live off the grid, would you consider installing one of these new bladeless wind turbines? What do you think of this design?
Article Source: Prepper's Will
