MAY 01

Now, if they can just install solar cells on the sun facing side of the donut.

The whole time i was reading this i was thinking of how a few solar panels would make this perfect. Maybe just print the cells on to the plastic you use.

Is it just me, or is the size of that thing a little too much? To install such a large base on such a small wind turbine is a little prohibitive in terms of use of space, isn't it?

I mean, it's easy to see how it would help (and the benefits are certainly measurable) but how space do you sacrifice in order to achieve increased output? At some point it must make sense to simply install another turbine instead.

Also, I can see this working on land-based turbines but certainly putting them on sea-based turbines would need some extra engineering.

OK, great that it improves performance, but it really does mess with the small footprint that turbines usually have. Would it not also work to use the dirt pulled out for the turbine foundation and landscape that into the 'hill'. Saving manufacturing costs, transportation and giving it a much more appealing vista.

I just really like the title of this article. Somehow it seems kinda funny, like something you'd find in the Onion...but apparently it's true. Interesting stuff.

Derek:
I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a change in how far apart the turbines are spaced, since they already have to be quite far apart to be fully practical. I think the point with this thing is that it can be installed on existing wind farms.

That having been said, this seriously compromises the idea that wind farms are one of the more aesthetically pleasing power "stations" out there. The big blue half-a-donut is not very good looking, and hides the ground.

Seems like you could throw a couple houses around it with the roof lines lined up correctly to get the same effect. Habitat for humanity / eco-power project anyone?

John Rowell: Is there anything donuts can't do?

Reticulogic: I think the difficulty with using houses as the wind slope is that many people find the vibrations from these turbines intolerable, and there isn't really any research on their long-term effects. Might be able to find some people willing to be the guinea pigs, though.

Doug: I like the idea of using a soil slope instead of a manufactured collar, especially since it could be covered with native plant species and such.

Good, but it seems to me only to enhance wind velocity from the base of the structure... why not have a cone or sleeve all around the turbine blades (like the cones you put on a dogs head to stop it scratching!) to gather and funnel wind 360 degrees. Maybe make the aperture adjustable to account for varying wind speeds, and operated by the force of the wind, and bob's your uncle.

Housing - modern wind turbines are not very loud, but I don't think anyone would enjoy living right under one. And then there's the 'strobe' effect created by the spinning blades.

The structure - I'm not clear on whether the open area under the donut plays a role in performance. If not, then using an earth berm to help direct the wind would be a low cost and environmentally friendly solution.

It even opens the idea of sculpting the land around turbines to increase performance. Lots of places the general direction of the wind is pretty constant.

Perhaps going out some distance from the tower and creating wind scoops, almost like a series of tapering scallops, might make a significant improvement in performance. Boosting low wind speed performance could be very valuable.

And the land could still be grazed. Cows know how to walk on hillsides....

Looking at the left image above does having this structure below the turbine not cause a larger bending force on the blades and therefore adversely affect the life of the turbine? Surely turbulence should be avoided and the aim would be to try to balance the force of the wind across the full rotor diameter?

I do not think this idea is good at all and i'm pretty certain it will not scale to larger turbines. For larger turbines (>1.5MW) they are almost at their limit for tower stress and I imagine this addition would not only stress the tower in ways it is not design for (angle of incidence and turbulence). Have they taken into account the additional cost of strengthening and redesigning the towers?

Secondly one of the great things about land based wind farms is that the rest of the land below them is still usable for farming etc.. this is a big reason so many plants are on farms (the farmer gets double revenue on their farm). This design would mitigate most of this benefit I believe.

If you incorporate this into a traditional farm setting could you some how make it so these also functioned as a storm shelter for cattle, sheep, goats?

According to the web site it will;

"Likely decreased maintenance costs and longer life span by balancing the velocity load and shearing forces on the turbine."

Make the donut surface from flexible solar panels and you got some solar if there is no wind.

tadaa

Attention to the ground profile around a wind turbine isn't anything revolutionary, however it often seems to be often overlooked. Aerodynamically, there isn't much different between this "plastic donut," a roofline, angled solar panels, or a round burm of dirt. It appears that the "plastic dounut" structure shown in the article is used for design and testing purposes. Leviathan Energy's research is about the specifics of the shape.

Several people made comments explaining that you can't mount a wind turbine on a building due to vibration. In my humble opinion (as an aeronautical engineer who has spent the last 5 years doing building design,) building integrated wind power generation is a GREAT idea. The building must be designed to isolate and dampen the vibrations from the turbine. This is only really difficult/expensive when attempting to retrofit a wind turbine on an existing building. Ideally the building shape will direct and accelerate the wind. The biggest challenge is to bring together Architects, Engineers, and people with money to fund such a project.

I am would be happy to discuss this with anyone who might have the resources to fund such a project.

seems like overkill - bettter to put inflatables above and below the drive that can be deflated in bad weather but create a venturii effect - taking their idea even further than replace the prop with a horizontal sail carosel like the new sailing technology to better leverage the inflatable contribution

Sounds like we will be looking at hybrids that incorporates baffles, inflatables, solar and maybe blade configurations. Time to start from square one and look for totally new designs. Great creative thinking by this company. Cost must be a big factor though.

If you cut the donut in hald so that it aligns with the direction of wind flow then you save money and land. It will also be half the calories of a regular donut.

Interesting how the slightest improvement make great impacts

Obama just opened the doors to fission fires for the U.S.A.! He did not, however, resolve or even address the waste disposal problems and the clean-up and site remediation , possibly hoping to deffer these problems to the next generation - for his daughters to solve! Why does he not instigate a "Manhattan Project" scale Solar Power endevor for the South Western desert lands of the U.S.? Does it have anything to do with the Uber-rich controlling the Uranium in the world? Is side-tracking them tantamount to anti-Zionism? Does Obama depend on "Friends in High places" for political survival, now that the easy part, "Fooling some of the people all the time" is over with the elections? Business as usual in the good ole' U.S.A.? He never even mentioned the "Wind Power Corridor" of the election days, nor did Boone T. Pickens name or ideas get tossed around! I expect that with this new dedication to Nuclear power, the "Easy-Out" of the energy crisis, we can put our mirrors, photo-cells and whirly gigs away in the “Science Oddities” box, and prepare to glow in the night like China, who are building 11 yes 11 new reactors this season, or France who sell waste to the former U.S.S.R. to be spread all over Siberia, ruining the last great frontier in the world! Dammit Ain't we smart Yankee Doodle - it is a henous "switch and bait" if I ever saw one! Feel like a sucker yet? - soon, just wait, soon! Thanks Barrack!