New Bladeless Design for Wind Energy
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Mentor
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Another concept
They all don't look very efficient. And this one even needs water.
They all don't look very efficient. And this one even needs water.
RaulTheUCSCSlug
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Won't the alternator need some maintenance? I'm also curious to see how these structures hold up to rain. They seem very interesting, and wouldn't mind doing a DIY one in my backyard this summer for fun! 
Thermo
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Good news for birds.
Jimster41
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Reminds me of that movie "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines".
Couple of thoughts keep recurring while reflecting on this thread.
Why has't nature come up with something as efficient as the rotating airfoil design? Lots of obvious answers follow on but it seems like an interesting way of thinking about the problem; to step back and look at it from a wider systems perspective.
How does per unit efficiency interact with system efficiency "footprint" in all relevant dimensions: size, cost of material, cost of construction, efficiencies of scale, durability and cost of maintenance over time, re-usability, quality of energy relative to use requirement, etc, etc? I would guess there are paradigms/tools for guesstimating. I am sure someone somewhere at some AE company has thought long and hard about how to enumerate those and get at some sensitivity matrix.
Or maybe it's a problem of identifying the key constraint to empirical discovery across what are actually impenetrably complex permutations. My guess is that the generator/alternator/storage mechanism is that. If someone could design a very cheap, incrementally scalable electric, or chemical, or electrochemical (or all of the above) energy converter that was not necessarily dependent on smooth high quality rotating mechanical energy, but more on any mechanical energy, natural mechanical noise, even if it was not terrifically efficient, then the question of how to "best" couple it to energy sources found in nature could be left as open as it probably should be.
The "compression engine" mentioned above is very interesting in this way.
Couple of thoughts keep recurring while reflecting on this thread.
Why has't nature come up with something as efficient as the rotating airfoil design? Lots of obvious answers follow on but it seems like an interesting way of thinking about the problem; to step back and look at it from a wider systems perspective.
How does per unit efficiency interact with system efficiency "footprint" in all relevant dimensions: size, cost of material, cost of construction, efficiencies of scale, durability and cost of maintenance over time, re-usability, quality of energy relative to use requirement, etc, etc? I would guess there are paradigms/tools for guesstimating. I am sure someone somewhere at some AE company has thought long and hard about how to enumerate those and get at some sensitivity matrix.
Or maybe it's a problem of identifying the key constraint to empirical discovery across what are actually impenetrably complex permutations. My guess is that the generator/alternator/storage mechanism is that. If someone could design a very cheap, incrementally scalable electric, or chemical, or electrochemical (or all of the above) energy converter that was not necessarily dependent on smooth high quality rotating mechanical energy, but more on any mechanical energy, natural mechanical noise, even if it was not terrifically efficient, then the question of how to "best" couple it to energy sources found in nature could be left as open as it probably should be.
The "compression engine" mentioned above is very interesting in this way.
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HyperTechno
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These too are bladeless wind electricity generators. What kind of mechanism is used here? That should be different from what mechanism used on pole generators.
Jeff Rosenbury
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I like the one that looks like a cell phone. I assume it's a version of mfb's electrostatic generator.
I like it because it could be placed in fields and potentially used to irrigate crops or possibly in a water park as an artistic feature. In the southwest it might be used as a house cooler. It looks like it could be a nice, dual use generator.
I like it because it could be placed in fields and potentially used to irrigate crops or possibly in a water park as an artistic feature. In the southwest it might be used as a house cooler. It looks like it could be a nice, dual use generator.
Dvorak
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This bladeless windmill works by movement of the pole due to the wind, then it is supposed to be flexible. What do you think is the material it will be made of? Secondly by the picture from the site we can know that it has less surface area, so the velocity of wind must be really high to make this windmill wag like the trees. Makes no sound is impossible, it is also probable that this new kind of windmill will make more sound than the one used presently, because the whole pole oscillates making its material move to and fro thus creating vibrations in the air.Jeff Rosenbury said:
HyperTechno
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HyperTechno said:
Can someone please explain the mechanism of the wind electric generators that I've shown in my previous reply?
willem2
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That would be a lot easier to do from a link than from just a photograph.HyperTechno said:
Anyway, the second and third photograph have already been discussed here (saphon and ewicon)
HyperTechno
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Ok, I'll read that. Thanks.
Mentor
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The first one is a conventional turbine, just floating in the air. I don't remember which company made that illustration.
HyperTechno
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mfb said:
I didn't notice the small blades inside it... thought it too is a bladeless one. And the second one which looks like some kind of a satellite antennae? 