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You’d be forgiven for casting your mind to the lethargic Texan plains of the west at the mention of wind turbines. But check this out, there are far more ways to capture renewable wind energy, and I think you might even agree that you’ll be tempted to try some of these just for their unorthodox nature! Oh and just to give credit where credit is due, Texas does come out on top as far as wind power in the U.S is concerned.

Urban Chic

Rotating Skyscrapers

Nope, you didn’t misread that, that’s what it say’s, Rotating Skyscrapers. And it probably won’t come as a surprise when I tell you Dubai’s the place to find it! Every single floor of this building will be able to move to the current of the wind. Imagine that? Never having to stare at the same view instead of instead of actually working anymore?

Wind Turbine Nano Skins

This system uses millions of small turbines strategically placed behind little openings in the skin of the design. Because the size of the turbines is dramatically reduced, so is the amount of wind it relies on. The product allows wind energy to be retrofitted to buildings and therefore assists in the generation of electricity already being produced by other renewable means.

Mobile Wind Power

These whisk-looking devices are portable genius! They can be hung vertically or propped up on your roof. The fact that they are portable simply means you have them when and where you need them!

The Wind Turbine Powered Skyscraper

Another Dubai contender. Featured in the World Trade Centre in Bahrain, the towers have 3 turbines hung between them. Each approximately 100Feet wide, they are a spectacular sight and generate air currents to optimize electricity.

Home Sweet Home!

Stylish Turbines

Turbines needn’t be ugly! I guess the fact that these are of Japanese design will not be of any surprise either? Not only do they work with a low wind speed, but the fluid turbine adds a touch of artistic flair to the home.

Helix Wind Generators

This helix designed pattern channels wind into the catch and centered across the turbine. Great for 2 reasons, firstly it works in multi directions, and secondly, it is quiet!

Commercial Applications

The Floating Turbine

Stripped down, this is pretty much a blimp attached to a cable holding turbines and propellers over the length of the tether with auto-adjust propellers added. The air in this wonder moves at a faster rate higher up in the atmosphere.

The Magnetic Suspended Turbine

These turbines need less land than the usual wind turbine due to its friction reducing deign. This will use magnets instead to suspend the turbine resulting in less moving parts in wind generation. An interesting approach, much so in its appearance.

Make no mistake, there is far more to come from this technology- we have already seen the Mercedes Electric/ Wind hybrid prototype, wind powered bikes and kinetic sculptures. Just think, there is no telling where we will be in 20 years!

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As fossil fuels continue to diminish and climate change poses an ever-increasing threat, scientists around the world are searching for new and more efficient methods of generating energy. Wind energy is one of the more promising alternative energy sources and Norwegian scientists are currently in the development stages of what promises to be [...]
Posted in: Industry, Wind Power, Wind Turbines

Wind energy is being used as a reliable source of energy for a long time. The Babylonians and Chinese used wind power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that.

Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind corn, which is where the term “windmill” comes from. Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy:

Advantages

• Wind is absolutely free and wind farms need no fuel to generate electricity.
• Wind energy produces no waste or greenhouse gases.
• The land beneath the wind turbines can usually still be used for farming.

• Wind farms can be tourist attractions.
• A great method of supplying energy to remote areas.

Disadvantages

• It is difficult to predict the wind pattern, there is no wind on some days.
• Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where land is expensive.
• Some people dislike the look of turbines, and feel that covering the landscape with these towers is unsightly.
• Wind turbines can kill birds as migrating flocks tend to like strong winds. However, this is quite rare, and we tend not to build wind farms on migratory routes anyway.
• Can affect television reception if you live nearby.
• Can be very noisy. Wind generators have a bad reputation of making a constant, low, “swooshing” noise day and night, which can drive you nuts, if you live nearby. But with time, aerodynamic designs have improved modern wind farms making them much quieter. The small modern wind generators used on boats and caravans make hardly any sound at all.

Technorati Tags: Wind,Energy,greenhouse,generators,turbines

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The one knock on wind energy is that it is not portable. Until recently, there were few if any portable devices that were available to literally take wind power on the go. That is changing quick as there are several “back-pack” style devices that are on the market. The Rose Wind Turbine is the [...]
Posted in: Inventions, Wind Power, Wind Turbines

Wind power has recently received a nice boost as one of the hottest forms of energy on the market. When comparing the recent market growth against all forms of energy, both renawables and non-renewables, wind turbines seem to be jumping to the head of the pack. While it still has a way to go [...]
Posted in: Inventions, Wind Power, Wind Turbines

Wind turbines are a great source of renewable energy, and have been producing significant quantities of electricity for a number of countries across the globe. Wind turbines have proved to be especially successful at sea due to various reasons.

But the question is that with the construction of on-shore wind turbines increasing constantly, should we looking into the construction of more off-shore wind farms?

The biggest advantage of coastal wind energy is that it is usually much more reliable and offers greater force as compared to land wind energy.

This coastal energy is much greater because of the open spaces the wind is able to use. The sea is completely flat, until you come to land. This gives wind energy a large open, clear path, without any obstruction to hold it back, allowing to gain energy before hitting a land mass.

Have you noticed how hurricanes lose their energy once they reach land mass. Although this is an extreme example, but it can help illustrate the effect a land mass has on the force of the wind.

However, wind turbines constructed on land can also generate just as much energy as off-shore wind turbines. This efficiency of turbines lies in the placement of the turbine.

Coastal wind turbines are still the preferred option, due to its location, but the costs involved in constructing a turbine out at sea are much greater than building a turbine on land. Together with the additional cost, there are also many other dangers associated with off-shore construction, which include the hurricane danger, the danger which the sea wildlife faces, and many more.

However, they are still a better option because of the noise factor. Coastal areas are not very populated and thus there is less opposition on installation of wind turbines as wind turbine developments on land are quite commonly met with anger from local residents.

Technorati Tags: Coastal,Wind,Turbines,energy,turbine

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Posted in: Wind Farms, Wind Power, Wind Turbines

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Posted in: Inventions, Wind Power, Wind Turbines

With the passage of time, it has become increasingly important to cut back our dependency on the fast depleting fossil fuels and turn to alternative resources, such as wind energy. But renewable energy sources too can have their advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

• Wind energy is an environment friendly energy resource as it does not require any fossil fuels to be burnt in order to generate electricity from wind energy.
• Wind turbines consume less space as compared to the average power station. Windmills only occupy a few square meters for the base, which allows the land surrounding the turbine to be used for other purposes, for example agriculture.
• Newer, better technologies are being incorporated to make the extraction of wind energy much more efficient. Most of all, the wind is free!

• Wind turbines are great to generate energy in remote locations, where it is difficult to supply power through traditional means such as mountain communities and other far off countryside areas. Wind turbines can be of different sizes to support varying population levels.
• When combined with solar electricity, this energy can be great for countries to provide a steady, reliable supply of electricity.

Disadvantages

• The biggest disadvantage of wind power is the unreliability factor. Wind turbines can only be installed in areas that have sufficient wind strength. Also, if the wind strength is good, but varies over time, you can solve this problem by combining solar panels with wind turbines to generate power.
• Wind turbines generally produce much less electricity as compared to the average fossil fuelled power station. This means that a huge number of wind turbines have to be built in order to make an impact.
• Wind turbine construction can be quite expensive and costly to surrounding wildlife during the build process.
• Commercial wind turbines can cause noise pollution as their noise is sometimes similar to a small jet engine.

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Between 2005 and 2008, the use of this form of energy doubled, with some countries basing up to 19% of its electricity production on Wind power (19% Denmark, 11 % Spain and 7 % in Ireland). Wind power really is exactly that, the use of wind turbines to harness the power of the wind and converting it in to useful energy.

Power transmission networks are generally connected to larger scale wind farms and use small turbines to provide isolated areas with electricity. These farms, where situated on agricultural land have one of the lowest impacts on the environment in comparison to other energy sources, but only produce approx 1.5% of the world electricity use despite its positive influence on the above listed countries.

From Grains to Plains…

Though its historical uses included grinding grain, pumping water and propel sailing ships, its primary modern use is electricity production. From 2008 Europe came first in off shore wind power development. This is down to a number of reasons such as strong wind energy, the shallow waters of the Baltic & North Sea’s and suitable location.

It comes as no surprise looking at the figures then that Denmark was the first installer of the off shore wind farm and up until 2008 held leading position in such development. It was then that the U.K followed suit and subsequently gained leadership. Of course other large markets like China and the U.S decided to initially develop on-land wind resources in areas of lower cost construction, and example being the Great Plains of the U.S. but where there are populations along coastlines close to off-shore wind resources, transmission costs would also be reduced!

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