6 high-efficiency wind turbine models

In a bid to increase efficiency and reduce costs, wind turbine developers have produced a number of interesting, and perhaps radical, designs for new turbines, as well as further developed the capabilities of conventional models. This pattern of innovation has examined areas such as materials design, aerodynamics, rotor size and form and durability. Here are six of the more interesting designs to have appeared recently. 1. Vortex Bladeless wind turbine

Vortex Bladeless is a company that has developed a bladeless wind turbine that it says has the potential to be more efficient, less visually intrusive and safer for wildlife, particularly birds, than conventional turbines. The RSPB and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), both vocal critics of the wind industry, have welcomed the new turbine, which contains no moving parts and is virtually noiseless while also reducing vibration. The turbine uses the energy of vorticity in which wind bypasses a fixed structure, generating a cyclical pattern of vortices which then causes the structure to oscillate. The new turbine captures this energy via a fixed mast, power generator and a hollow, lightweight cylinder. There are no moving parts, thereby eliminating the need for lubrication and reducing wear and tear. It is also cheaper and more environmentally friendly. 2. Liam F1

Dutch tech firm The Archimedes has developed the Liam F1 Urban Wind Turbine for domestic use, generating as much as 80 percent energy from wind while also being considerably quieter than conventional turbines, compact and affordable. It can also capture wind energy from multiple directions. The turbine features a front-facing rotor but is designed along the lines of the Archimedes screw pump which was used in Ancient Greece to pump water. The blade is shaped like a spiral, enabling it to swivel and collect wind energy at angles up to 60º from the central axis. The turbine can generate energy from wind speeds of up to 5 meters per second, delivering up to 1,500 kilowatt hours per year, thereby enabling the supply of about a third to half the electricity of an average Dutch home. 3. Invelox

Invelox has been developed by Sheerwind, a company based in Minnesota, USA. It is shaped like a funnel with an omnidirectional intake area that allows wind collection from multiple directions. The wind is funneled through the system and concentrated and further accelerated in the Venturi Effect section of the system. The Venturi Effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a fluid flowing through a pipe is forced through a narrow section, thereby resulting in a decrease in pressure and increase in velocity. The wind is then delivered to the turbine/generators and converted into electricity. The technology utilizes current turbines and rotors but brings them down to ground level, enabling easier and cheaper operation and maintenance. 4. The Tubercle

his is actually a type of rotor blade that can be used in both wind turbines and marine energy devices, developed by a company called Whalepower, whose founder, Dr Frank E. Fish, noticed that humpback whales use strange bumps on the leading edge of their fins to utilize the fluid dynamics of their marine environment. The company created versions of these bumps on the leading edge of its rotors to overcome the limitations of fluid dynamics. This in turn increases efficiency performance and reliability while also reducing noise. 5. EWT DW61

The DW61 (Direct Wind 61) has been developed by EWT, building on the experience of the DW54. The turbine has been designed to significantly increase output through a larger rotor diameter, resulting from the latest aerodynamic blade designs and advanced control technologies. The company focused its development on the global requirement for localized generation, both on-grid and off-grid, for high yield and competitive costs with regard to local grid supply. The prototype DW61 was recently installed in Lelystad, The Netherlands, and the company is expecting the first units to be deployed in the third quarter of 2016. 6. GE 2.5-120

The 2.5-120 wind turbine is a conventional model designed for high performance, reliability and availability and building on the performance of its predecessors. The turbine features a 120-meter rotor with single-blade pitch control incorporating the latest enhancements in load management controls, low acoustic emissions, efficient electrical power conversion and robust performance. It was designed for forested areas and low to medium wind sites and offers a 25 percent increase in capacity factor and a 15 percent increase in Annual Energy Production (AEP). This in turn increases full load operating hours, improving project economics for wind farm developers.

15-year-old invents $12 probe that harnesses energy from ocean currents

Many of us have been bestowed the project of a pen pal in school. Teachers assign these projects in hopes of children being able to get a glimpse of another child’s life and culture, opening their mind to how other kids around the world live. Hannah Herbst, a 15-year old teenager in Florida, did not take this project lightly but used her pen pal’s story to inspire a pretty impressive invention for harnessing energy from ocean currents.

“I found out that she’s living in energy poverty, and she doesn’t have access to things that I take for granted every day,” Herbst explains the motivation from her 9- year old pen pal in Ethiopia. “Then I was boating with my family through the Boca Raton Inlet, and our boat was really jerked around by the current. I thought, why not use this power?” Knowing that this very clever idea had a ton of potential, Herbst, entered a the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and worked with a 3M scientist to assist in the concept and design. The final result garnered the competition’s 1st place prize. The prototype consisted of a 3D printed propeller linked to a hydroelectric generator, allowing waves to move the propeller and provide water power to the generator. Herbst’s design boasts sustainability by utilizing natural energy but also affordable parts that cost just $12 for the model. The simple prototype is not bulky and can not power a house but its design constructed of recycled parts can fuel enough power to run a small desalination machine, filtering ocean water into safe drinking water. Herbst has future plans to open source it, aiming to have global accessibility with it’s relatively simple parts. A project that started out just hearing a woes of her pen pal ended with a potential movement to make electricity more accessible to everyone around the world. This is a really good one!!!!!

Biologic fabric uses living bacteria that reacts to the user’s sweat

Smart clothes, which makes use of technology to benefit the wearer, has been undergoing lots of development lately, particularly in the areas of high-performance sports, where small details can make a huge difference to an athlete.

Following this trend, MIT Media Labs’ Tangible Media Group in collaboration with MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a fabric called “biologic” which uses bacteria as an energy source. The project uses Bacillus Subtilis, a bacteria discovered by the Japanese a long time ago in dry stalks of rice which was used to make bags to carry soybeans. Since then, this micro-organism has been used in food fermentation in the Eastern cuisine.

What scientists at MIT have discovered is that this bacteria reacts to the humidity in the environment by changing size. Therefore, the microorganisms were used to create a second-skin that, when exposed to the user’s sweat flaps open to release heat from the body. This allows the sweat to evaporate more easily and help cool the user’s body. When the heat zone dries, the bacteria reacts once more causing the flaps to close again.

To bring this technology to the sportswear market, MIT is working with sport clothing manufacturer New Balance.

Toyota’s hydrogen-powered FCV Plus Concept can power your house

Hydrogen is a gas with high energy potential when used in high concentrations. With this in mind, Toyota has been working on cars that use this energy source as fuel, which would theoretically make them very environmentally friendly. The latest of these models is the Toyota FCV Plus, a tiny but very futuristic car that will be presented at Tokyo Motor Show later this month.

The car is very compact, but inside, it seems quite spacious. This is because each wheel has its independent embedded motor, and the fuel cell stack sits between the front wheels. The exterior of the car is mostly made of a transparent material, which ensures optimum field of vision for the driver and for the passengers. As this is only a concept, more detailed technical information hasn’t been released about it yet, like top speed and it’s autonomy on a single hydrogen tank.

However, the company has already announced that the car could serve as an electricity generator for small houses or even for those who like to camp in remote locations. So we can imagine that the hydrogen conversion capacity in the car is quite interesting.

British architect transforms public bathroom into a beautiful home

The British architect Laura Clark made a grand renovation on a property by transforming an abandoned public restroom into an incredible private home. The 600m² site is located underneath the Crystal Palace Parade in London. What used to be a simple bathroom has now become a practical London home with living room, bedroom, kitchen, and small patio.

Clark became aware of the public restroom in 2005. Young and recently graduated from Glasgow School of Art, the architect had just moved to London when she decided to take up the project. “For me that’s about saving sites with an interesting history, but which have been abandoned and forgotten.” she told the Telegraph.

First a bit on the site history, the restrooms were built in the lates 20’s and served their main purpose until the 80’s. Clark decided to transform the site into a one bedroom apartment since the property was not available for commercial use. After countless meetings with Lambeth Council’s regeneration department, the architect finally bought the place in 2011.

The property then evolved from old restrooms to a bright and comfortable home. The end result of all the years of hard work put in by Clark is a cozy and light-filled one-bedroom apartment she now calls home. The kitchen tiles and a mirror in the living room were restored from the original structure as a reminder of the building’s origins. The luxurious bathroom counts with a gold-leaf wall which she added herself to add a touch of glamour to it. The apartment even count with a cute subterranean garden that gives it a fresh and homely feel. Clark even left a small public health poster warning of the perils of VD in the kitchen to lighten up the mood. The entire project for this luxurious little apartment cost Clark a total of £65,000 and a whole lot of creativity and energy.

Laura Clark is the founder of Lamp Architects, a firm specialized in residential architecture. The bathroom transformation can also be seen.

New carbon capture plant makes fuel from air

This week marked the opening of new “pilot” fueling plant in the coastal town of Squamish, British Columbia. But this plant is not like any other fuel making plant. This plant is responsible for pioneering a completely new industry of refining fuels needed for transportation utilizing the carbon dioxide captured from air. If its sounds a little too good to be true, Technology Review explains.

“It’s not designed for or capable of measurably reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rather, the motivation is to produce fuels for transportation applications, such as jet aircraft and heavy-duty trucks and buses” David Keith, the founder of Carbon Engineering and the company that built the pilot plant states that once the plant is at its full efficiency, their system will be able to strip about one ton of carbon dioxide per day. The Harvard Professor in Applied Physics is also not new to concepts of reengineering fuel sources and approaches towards the remission of global warming. About two years ago, Keith was a major public advocator, calling for more research into geoengineering and exploring the idea of irrigating the lower stratosphere with sulfuric acid to reflect sunlight and offset warming effects.

Keith also explains that their carbon capture system doesn’t utilize any new technology but combines the industrial processes that are already used in current industries, like papermills. However, the process sounds slightly more complicated than making paper. Essentially a large wall of fans pulls air into a liquid that reacts with the CO2 to create a carbon rich solution. The concentrated solution is then purified through a process where it is then made into a CO2 gas and the same liquid to be used in the beginning of the process of air extraction. That is just the first half of this process, part 2 is actually still in the works of construction, because it requires the plant to install an electrolyzer to split water to collect the hydrogen needed to create the hydrocarbon fuels needed to fuel transportation vehicles. Because this system is so energy-intensive, self-sustaining modifications such as solar panels need to be implemented for the plant to be economically valuable. But in spite of a few tweaks here and there to ensure performance efficiency, this is a huge stride in fuel production.

These skyscrapers are taking “green design” to the next level

Eco-friendly seems to be somewhat of requirement now in the production of materials. Designers, architects and contractors are working together and making strides in sustainable materials and structures. The latest comes to you by way of Milan and has been coined a “vertical forest”. Already garnering some attention from Emporis Skyscraper Awards, the twin structures at 256 feet and 344 feet high towers utilize more than 700 trees and 90 different species of plants on various balconies and other outer facades.

Architect, Stefano Boeri, engineered the concept of these upright green towers to redefine approaches towards urban scenery, stating on his site, “It is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city that operates in relation to policies for reforestation and naturalization of large urban and metropolitan borders.” In addition to exemplifying the true beauty of having a dueling towers of foliage in middle of a hustling borough, the design is also capitalizing on some incredible benefits. Centrally located areas like these are naturally also heavily polluted with air-toxins. All of this plant life helps actually reduce the smog and promote healthier respiration. Solid structures like these building are also ideal to reduce noise pollution with the constant noise of cars and traffic reverberating up the skyscrapers. The greenery also helps regulate temperatures inside the office, shading the units in the summer from harmful UV rays, while still allowing sunlight in colder season to warm up the areas.

The most fascinating feature in the design of these staggering towers is in their irrigation systems. That’s right, all precipitation in the city of Milan will be utilized to help water and sustain this vertical forest. Boeri designed an irrigation system that capitalizes on every drop of water from outside the building and inside and then transferring it to the plant life. This system of reusing gently used water from inside building’s sinks, tubs and washing machines is called grey water and is also becoming a trend in buildings infrastructures.