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Exciting innovations in wind energy

A Peek Into The Astonishing Future Of Wind Power CLIMATE PROGRESS, BY ARI PHILLIPS ON MARCH 13, 2014 “WHAT IF YOU COULD SCOOP THE AIR? SCOOP IT AND MOVE IT DOWNWARD, AMPLIFYING ITS KINETIC ENERGY ALONG THE WAY, CONCENTRATE IT TO A SINGLE POINT OF INTENSITY, THE WAY A MAGNIFYING GLASS CONCENTRATES SUNLIGHT TO A SINGLE INCENDIARY POINT?”

Dr. Daryoush Allaei, an engineer and founder of Sheerwind, an innovative wind power company, is concentrating his unique thought process on harnessing wind energy in new ways.

“And assuming you could do this technically, could you do it on a large enough scale to make it economically feasible?” Allaei writes in his company description. “More to the point, could you generate energy so inexpensively that it stages a renaissance?”

Sheerwind is pushing the boundaries of wind power innovation with its bladeless wind turbine, called INVELOX. The turbines funnel wind into ground-level generators through a tapering passageway that squeezes and accelerates the air. The units are about half as tall as traditional wind towers, which rise up to 260 feet into the air, and the ground-based turbine blades are more than 80 percent smaller than conventional wind turbine blades, which are about 115-feet long. The device resembles a giant gramophone that sucks in wind instead of blurting out sound.

Sheerwind represents a small point in the larger picture of wind power development, itself part of the story of renewable energy technology. The entire history of power generation, from Ben Franklin’s kite experiments 250 years ago to deep sea drilling for oil and gas is a complex tale of imaginative inventiveness riding up against economic realities. As wind power takes hold across the world, developers are constantly looking for new ways to make the technology lighter, faster, and more efficient but some of the most inventive ideas are often stymied by a lack of financial support during early stages…….http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/13/3366401/future-of-wind-power/

March 14, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable