The use of wind power has been around for centuries, from the simple sail to the sophisticated windmills. The inconvenience of harvesting wind energy is that most of wind-farm sites are placed far away from the areas that need the power.
Wind turbines cannot be placed in crowded cities as they need a lot of space to rotate towards the wind direction. A solution would be to use vertical airfoils that can exploit the wind from any direction. But they still need to be mounted in a space of their own.
Sridhar Condoor from Saint Louis University in Missouri has invented a cylindrical wind turbine that has no central hub. Because of its form the device can be place around pre-existing features like chimney stack, cellphone mast and even tree trunks.
The device has some inlets that can harness wind energy from any direction and throughout a wide range of wind speeds. The system has few devices configured in a hollow, cylindrically shaped and connected to a ring frame. The system rotates around an axis running through the center of the ring frame. The rotation of the system drives a gear that powers a generator, being in this manner able to produce electricity. That makes the device simple to install without needing clear space.
[via newscientist.com]
What a fantastic idea! I hope this idea is developed and put into general use. We really need some help with sustainable energy sources.
Give credit to the other two people on the Patent. That was a Mechanical Senior Design project presented at St. Louis University. This was not Dr. Condoor’s work, this was the work of others. He’s taking Credit where it isn’t necessarily due. So happy to see SLU and Dr. Condoor hose out 2 engineers just so he can try and advance his name. Shame on you for doing shoddy reporting/blogging.
cylindrical turbines are the go. Looking for renewable energy ideas for small business and household renters can take with them when it is time to move.I have a small bookkeeping business,I would like to promote these types of alternatives to help reduce carbon footprint.I am guessing these would be alot more affordable.