| Novel Barrel Turbine Wins $34,000 Grant |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Monday, 02 July 2007 | ||
 Graeme Attey, already a little bit famous as the inventor of a two-wheeled, wind-powered "dirt surfer," has just taken his inventing skills to a new (and more useful) level. This roof-top wind turbine is small, cheap, quiet and sits at the peak of the roof-line in order to capture wind at it's maximum speed. Mr. Attey has been awarded a AU$34,000 grant from the government of Australia to develop the technology and make it suitable for use across windy Western Australia. Another $28,000 was awarded to a scientist to determine the ideal placements for such small-scale residential turbines. At only AU$700 a piece, these turbines are definitely the cheapest option we've seen in small wind. And though they don't have an enormous generating capacity, they are designed to be used in series. So, an average household could install as many as six of these turbines on their roof, while selling all of their excess electricity back to the electric company. The only issue, of course, is whether home-owners will be willing to add these clunky barrel turbines to their roof. But if Western Australia really wants to reduce it's greenhouse emissions by 60% in 40 years, they're going to have to make compromises. Besides its somewhat cumbersome appearance, these turbines look to me like a very promising advancement in suburban energy generation. Video After the Jump. Via Metaefficient See Also: -Big Ideas in Small Wind- -Shape-Shifting Personal Wind Turbine-
Comments
(4)
Is it just me or does it look like it wo
written by lowspeed , July 03, 2007
Sounds very interesting
written by Niels R. , July 06, 2007
Well, if this really turns out to be a cheap and descent way to produce electricity then I'll be the first to install a couple on the roof/terrace of my apartment. My refrigerator is always turned on, so it could suck his energy (partly) from such source.
Darrieus Turbines
written by jsbarrie , July 06, 2007
This is a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine set on its side. I watched a few friends set up the vertical model at the Habitat conference in 1976. It does create pulsing noise and it also has pretty uneven pulsing power.
The big drawback is that the Darrieus type turbine isnt self starting so there will have to be some sort of starting mechanism, usually built into the generator. The sister project, a study of where on roofs is best to place a turbine, should produce interesting information that can be used for lots of smaller wind power technologies. Commenting from the road in Guatemala, jsbarrie
Low speed low power
written by PC , October 10, 2007
This looks more like a modified Savonius type machine.
The main problem with this type of design is its low efficiency, typically 15 - 20%. Also, with the low and turbulent wind velocities found close to the ground, the boundary effect generated by the roof and only being able to receive wind from one direction, this would likely be at the low end of conversion efficiencies. Power generated from the wind is approx 0.5 x cube of velocity (metres/sec) x area x conversion efficiency. So if this machine is 1.5m long by .7m dia, this gives a total area of approx 1m^2. With a wind velocity of 5m/s (18kph or 11mph) and assuming a 15% conversion we get: 0.5 x 125 x 1 x 0.15 = 9 watts. If the conversion was 20% and the velocity 10m/s ... 0.5 x 1000 x 1 x 0.2 = 100 watts which isn't much for a 36kph or 22mph wind. Now if we loose 10% of that energy putting it in to a battery and another 10% getting it back out we are down to 7 and 81 watts respectively. Small wind turbines in low and turbulent wind streams are just not efficient. Sorry about that! | ||
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The thing hardly moves... and that's without introducing the resistance of generating electricity...