WIND TO TAKE PROVEN TURBINE DESIGN TO SEA

Offshore Vertical Axis Wind Turbines Are Sinking Not Swimming

Mike Barnard, March 25, 2014 (Clean Technica)

“One of the persistent myths of wind energy is that vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are better than the iconic three-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWTs)…[O]ffshore applications have some different conditions which might favour VAWTs over HAWTs, but…the [prototype of the] SKWID by Modec, a Japanese marine engineering company [sank]…[T]he Nenuphar device [by a French company]…stalled in December 2012…[and] Nenuphar CEO Charles Smadja said that based on performance alone, horizontal axis turbines would always be superior to their vertical axis equivalent…[Sandia] performed extensive R&D on vertical-axis wind turbines in the 1970s and 80s, none of which resulted in economically viable products…They are dusting off 30- to 40-year-old research…[and] spending about $4 million…This is a reasonable and small side bet in a rich industry…[T]he Deepwind project in Europe…proposed a simplified, long-shaft floating VAWT [in 2010]…As of early 2013, they were still presenting purely hypothetical designs…[T]he Norwegian Gwind research project…[has] a small-scale prototype that was launched in September of 2013. Results aren’t in…Vertiwind, a sub-project of the INFLOW program…is at least a year behind…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet