Will TMA Wind Blow Away the Competition? (vertical wind generator technology)

PESN.com ^ | 1 Feb 07 | Sterling D. Allan

[saganite]

The author issues a disclaimer that he has a financial interest in this design.

[Izzy Dunne]

the typical propeller-like, horizontal blades.

I suppose he means horizontal SHAFT, as most turbines have the shaft horizontal, and the blades are vertical.

[JimRed]

I invented that 30 years ago! Too bad I wasn't smart enough to patent it!
:^(

[r9etb]

Sounds like a savonius rotor approach. Back in college, I had a couple of classmates who did a project on this.... It's a pretty old idea.

There are a lot of potential advantages, including fewer moving parts. For example, it's not directional, so you don't have to include a swivel behind the rotor blades.

The biggest issues would have to do with getting sufficient "wetted area" on the airfoils.

[r9etb]

Because the generator is near the ground where it is easily accessible, the maintenance costs on a TMA design are considerably less of what they are for a horizontal design where the equipment is high up in the exposed air.

They'll have boundary layer and turbulence problems, then.

[saganite]

I think the turbine blades are elevated with the generator being on the ground. But then I thought the generator on current windmill types was also on the ground.

[pabianice]

Full Details

[saganite]

I take it by the link you provided that you think this won't work, at least in the sense that any wind powered electric generator "works".

[r9etb]

I think the turbine blades are elevated with the generator being on the ground. But then I thought the generator on current windmill types was also on the ground.

I think the generators on the big turbines are just behind the blades, so there must be a design aspect there -- perhaps they don't want to spend energy turning a big drive shaft.

Seems to me that the same design issues would be in play for this system, unless the thing in its entirety is sitting closer to the ground.

[visualops]

Sounds promising, but can they get past all the "not in my backyard" people who want to have their cake and eat it too?
What I find particularly interesting is the eventual underwater version.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

"What I find particularly interesting is the eventual underwater version."

Deep underwater please. We don't need no stinking navigation hazards.

[saganite]

There are a couple of pics at the link that are helpful in regards to your questions. You can see by the men standing next to the test model that it's quite small compared to the current windmill type generators. I'm sure the 500 KW version would be substantially larger though. The second pic is taken inside the generator room and it appears the drive shaft is very short and is coupled directly to the bottom of the turbine section.

[yoe]

This is what it looks like?

[r9etb]

As #10 shows, it's indeed a savonius rotor type. That close to the ground, it'll indeed suffer from boundary layer and turbulence effects.

[wizr]

ping

[Dixie Yooper]

Deep underwater please. We don't need no stinking navigation hazards

The ones that will go around Martha's Vineyard will be very near the surface, but out of sight.

[Uncledave]

Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

[Rb ver. 2.0]

That ought to be good enough to rip the hulls out of John Kerry's and the Swimmer's sailboats.

[DungeonMaster]

Don't ya just hate verticle axis windmills?

[Balding_Eagle]

but can they get past all the "not in my backyard" people who want to have their cake and eat it too?

That will be overcome in the same way they are overcoming the resistance to the present windmills. In the midwest farmers are lined up wanting to place windmills on their own property. How? They own them, and sell the electricity to the power company.

The waiting list is long, and constraind by the number of windwills the factories can manufacture.