Using Mobile Phone Towers For Wind Power

As the world moves toward lower carbon energy production it will cause us to look for new power production opportunties including cell towers. This is particularly important for areas where electric distribution is limited.

Paul Ridden of Gizmag.com reports:

"Later this month, Helix Wind Corporation will deliver its first test wind turbines to Eltek Network Solutions Group for installation at two test sites in Nigeria. Sites in the US are also set to take delivery of test modules. The turbines will provide a clean energy solution for mobile phone towers and if tests prove successful, could see wind power being rolled out to hundreds of sites over the next few years.

'Currently such towers are powered by diesel generators, which are bad for the environment and extremely expensive to operate,' said Helix Wind CEO Ian Gardner. 'Anywhere the power grid is unreliable, expensive or simply non-existent, wind is an ideal renewable energy resource able to power these towers and reduce their operating cost."' See full article.

Laser-Guided Wind Turbine Technology For Greater Output

Emerging laser technology can help wind turbines be more efficient.

Jeff Kart at CleanTechnica.com reports:

"The Manassas, Virginia-based Catch the Wind has signed an agreement to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab in Boulder, Colorado, to test the company’s Vindicator laser wind sensor. Catch the Wind will provide a test unit to the U.S. Department of Energy facility for up to three years. The lab will use the Vindicator to measure wind speeds and direction with a goal of optimally aligning turbines and turbine blades. The idea is to cut stress loads on turbines and up their energy output." See full article.

Humpback Whale Inspires New Wind Power Turbine Designs

A new design for wind turbine blades was inspired by a whale and a work of art.

T. Goodman at InventorSpot.com reports:

"Frank Fish (yes, it's his real name), whose field just happens to be biomechanics, actually came about his observations of the humpback whale serendipitously when he saw a sculpture of a humpback with what he thought were misplaced tubercles on the whale's flipper. The artist had placed them on the "leading" edge of the flipper, not on the underside of the flipper, where Fish "knew" they should be because of his study of fluid dynamics (i.e, smooth edges are most aerodynamic). The artist was correct, however, and Fish's further research indicated that at least part of the science of fluid dynamics was wrong. The tubercle placement on the humpback whale's flippers and tail is a major part of the reason the great mammal is so aerodynamic

This tubercle design operationally keeps air attached to the blades, thereby managing the flow of air and increasing the lift of the blade -- two areas of concern in the development of wind turbines." See full article.

Wind Energy Installed In Existing Power Line Towers

There are tens of thousands of miles of transmission lines in the U.S. supported by towers that could be fitted with wind turbines. Some wind energy designers are offering an approach they call the Wind-it Project.

Alternative Energy News.info reports:

"Wind-it project offers to answer many challenges we face while setting up wind farms in an area. One of the greatest challenges to the expansion of wind power: where to site wind turbines. Choppin, Delon and Menard’s design uses the existing infrastructure. They suggest the use of already existing towers and pylons that dot the more than 157,000 miles of high voltage power lines in the U.S. They ask us to install the wind turbines within already sited structures." See full article.

New Smaller WindCube Generator Can Fit On Buildings

Innovators continue to work on smaller-scale wind generators for use in urban areas. The WindCube, which can be aimed at prevailing winds, has real potential.

Alternative Energy News.info reports:

"Green Energy Technologies has developed a brand new wind power generator known as the WindCube. It is smaller compared to the normal wind generator. WindCube is specially designed to set up on the roof of a building in urban and rural areas. WindCube carries a 22 x 22 x 12 feet framework and its single unit can produce a maximum of 60kW of power. Mark L. Cironi, who is the president and founder of Green Energy Technologies, explains, “Building owners anywhere can consider being a part of the renewable energy picture. See full article.

Vertical-Axis Wind Power Could Cut Offshore Installation Costs

The use of horizontal-axis wind power mills is easier on land than at sea due to their large average size. A new, smaller and easier, 10 megwatt design may help.

New Energy Focus.com reports:

"British company VertAx Wind Ltd has appointed marine engineering specialists SeaRoc to devise a safe way to install the machines, as the technology enters its second phase of development. Wind turbines used in offshore wind farms are currently based on horizontal axis designs, but making them bigger to make maximum use of the high winds out to sea is physically difficult. VertAx believes its vertical axis design offers a much easier way to scale up wind generation machines - and will also see them requiring less maintenance, another key issue for wind farms installed in the open ocean." See full article.

Less Wind: Larger Generator Blades

The U.S. is full of areas with high average winds but many of these places are also heaviliy populated and large wind farms would be controversial. Engineers are finding that a wider range of sites with less wind can be effectively developed for wind power if the bades are larger and slower.

CNET News GreenTech reports:

"So some wind-turbine makers are shifting their focus toward building bigger wind turbines that can harvest the lower-speed winds that are more readily available. This next generation of wind turbines is no small matter: their rotors have a diameter the size of a football field.

In general, wind turbines get more powerful and efficient with taller turbine towers and larger areas swept by the blades, according to the American Wind Energy Association. A turbine's swept area is a key indicator in how much power output potential the turbine has.

'Lower wind-speed turbines certainly open up more land for development,' said Rich Reno, platform leader for General Electric's new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine. "Larger turbines open up the opportunity to get more megawatts out of a given piece of land." See full article:

Wind Power: The Emerging "Smart" Turbine Blade

Some existng technologies will need to get better and better to make a large enough dent in the vast challnge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. Wind energy shows great promise.

Physorg.com reports on a smarter mousetrap .. err .. windmill blade:

This research is to improve the efficiency of turbines and prevent damage to blades from high winds. The researchers, from Purdue and Sandia National Laboratories, have developed a technique that uses sensors and computational software to constantly monitor forces exerted on wind turbine blades. Such sensors could be instrumental in future turbine blades that have control surfaces and flaps like those on an airplane's wings to change the aerodynamic characteristics of the blades for better control.

"The ultimate goal is to feed information from sensors into an active control system that precisely adjusts components to optimize efficiency," said Purdue doctoral student Jonathan White, who is leading the research with Douglas Adams, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of Purdue's Center for Systems Integrity. See full article