At nearly seventy, the design work I did on bladeless turbines in the nineties still haunts me. At the time, there was no interest I could connect with. About five years ago, I 3D printed a scale model of the most promising of the work. The physics are valid, and one element has appeared. But the overall design will likely only become a little known and lost concept. Keep up the good work.
I'm curious, which of the designs mentioned in the video was yours? Or did you come up with something that remains completely unique? I'd love to hear the details... wind power as a concept is fascinating to me, but I dislike traditional bladed turbines.
@@crazycanadian7223 None in the vid were mine. Difficult to explain without the pictures. But in essence, imagine an 80 meter tall shaped tube (shaped to manipulate pressures and velocities) where the base held an internal turbine and the inlet, and the top, a wing which swiveled into the wind. The trailing edge had a full span slot. As air passed over the wing, the low pressure region at the traling edge drew air up the tube through the turbine. The top surface of the wing had PV which drove a compressed air jet to impart rotation to the turbine when the air was too light to drive the turbine at speed. The turbine blade assy also acted as a flywheel to mitigate rotational speed drops. Simple concept. Passive to birds, and far more attractive. I'd upload pix if possible.
@@kevatut23 That's quite interesting and very unique, I think can picture the configuration but I'd certainly like to see a picture - maybe you could upload to a site like Imgur or something and link it here? I don't _think_ UA-cam filters links in comments.
The Power Pod looks amazing. I've been researching, getting ready to install a solar roof and would love to also channel wind energy. But the idea midway through the video of placing a vertical generator next to a train track seems like it could be a golden idea. I'm just imagining what a mile long stretch of those on both sides could do. It also got me thinking about other man-made wind tunnels. I remember working in downtown, where the tall buildings created winds in the winter that were so strong you couldn't walk into it at times, and what kind of energy that wind could generate.
Yes, some 'bad' city planning make good spots for energy generation. Alley between buildings, we might make their funneling effect pay for our energy bills.
One thing I’ve heard about birds in turbines is that larger birds specifically are effected disproportionately to smaller birds, like condors and other large birds
You are correct. The comparison was a false dichotomy, a logical fallacy. Those birds killed by the large windmills can potentially eat small cats, as well as dogs for that matter, especially dead ones.
As with all this green crap they have to lie and twist the facts. Cats are in equilibrium with sparrows. Giant condors, bald eagles and migrating geese are less expendable. EPA has introduced draconian regulations to protect all these bird species..... which the greenies instantly forget about when it comes to wind power. This is just another perverse outcome of the hysterical obsession about limiting CO2. ALL other reasoning goes out of the window.
for all we know, they could have been trying to copy *that weird thing they saw one time, that some people gave so much care to, that provided them with limitless power, which looked more or less like a giant vertical stick of some weird material*
Ancient cultures sacrificed humans to please the gods over the deadly weather, back when Co2 was at its lowest level. Even the lowest IQ person can understand spending trillions to reduce Co2 levels is not money well spent. Eventually we will need to go renewable. The means by which we arrive there will decide if we are free or enslaved.
This is from five months ago, but I'd love a yearly update on this and all your other clean power topics. This was an excellent and succinct breakdown of emerging technologies
The only concern is that there will be only one or two surviving options available as they prove more efficient than others, because we don't all live in areas that are suitable for some of these designs. For example: I think the RAF would have something to say about a skysail hovering over my house, since they sometimes make very low flypasts. The traditional wind turbine would be constantly criticised and reported by a particularly fussy neighbour. Those ones with the wires - well, I can see them being a problem for birds that tend to swoop about at high speeds. I had a Merlin wedge herself in a large gauge wire mesh fence when hunting swallows. So that would leave the VAWT (I'm currently looking into a way to heat or provide light for my greenhouse when I finally build it, so I can better grow veg plants through the winter). The VAWT looks the most promising, since I am hoping to find a way to build one rather than buy it. I have some parts, just have to make sense of the electrics book I'm currently reading. Not easy when you've never been interested in that sort of thing before!
If you live near any kind of river or creek you can build a hydroelectric system for pretty cheep that will put out about 500kw. UA-cam is a great source for learning electrical systems. 👍
I agree .. my question to them is if they have considered stacking them .. making a tower .. my other thought was making them smaller and lighter so that you could place more of them around your residence (roof caps / chimneys / gutters)
@@denale688 Why don't you just get one for starters, and when you realize you will never get a return on investment, you do not buy the rest? Compared to "traditional" windmills, these are notoriously inefficient.
@@tzenophile something has to be better than nothing .. in the areas that I was contemplating a windmill the neighbors would complain not to mention the city would most likely poo poo 💩 the conventional windmill
@@denale688 No. Sometimes nothing is the best strategy, that goes for many types of situations. In this case it is simple; you are spending money that you won't get back, and the device will not produce useful amounts of power. So it is not simply something, it is something that will have a negative impact. This is worse than gambling, for at least in gambling there is a small chance that you could win. Just get solar.
That expression you said from your heart at the end of the video is honestly the biggest thing I resonate with. I totally wish to see that type of future as well. Almost like we have all these little unique art structures all over towns that utilize natural energy from our ecosystem in all sorts of creative ways.
There is a project in the UK, to harness the wind generated by traffic. They are setting up vertical turbines on the central reservation (median US speak?) on part of the motorway between London and Dover, as a proof of concept.
It’s dangerous and doesn’t work so great in theory. The extra drag created is compensated by the vehicle, there fore more fuel being used. It’s been debunked a few times now, not sure why the same videos keep going around for them.
@@courtneypope1234 I've seen those turbines, they are about 3 feet tall and barely fatter than the lamp post they are mounted on! :) If they create big drag, surely street signs and bus stops etc, would make even more? The idea was to harvest waste energy from traffic.. Can you link a debunking video with sound math pls? Goggling debunking these turbines gives me nothing....
In southern Alberta the wind is always blowing, at one time we thought of a small vertical axis turbine on each fence post, just to keep our electric fence going… this was 30 years ago… now it actually seems to be a plausible idea
VAWT's can actually be quite powerful. All depends on how you design them, but they can spin extremely fast, are very stable and can spin in virtually no wind, due to, as you said omnidirectional. You can mount them down low, unlike HAWT's. The military use VAWTS, as they are low profile and easily deployed and safe and work on the ground.
I love the power pod! Seems simple, and easily allows for retrofit applications on existing homes. Plus they seem inocuous enough if mounted on your roof top.
Loved your take on the wind power .. I have been interested in the Vertical Access Turbines and the Halcium Power Pods seems promising for residential and commercial uses .. the Power Pod or VAWT's simular have peaked my interest for decades .. my thought was to stack them and place them in series .. or make them smaller and place them in series .. not only for trains but for highways especially for tunnels or overpasses .. the smaller versions could replace the aerators on garages that circulate air to dissipate heat .. the uses are basically endless .. thank you for putting out this video .. I am now a Subscriber
I have always wanted to convert my furnace chimney into a wind pipe with vertical windmills inside of it and allowing the lower portion to vent to outside yielding a difference in pressure from roof to basement spinning the rotors out of view.
@@prismgems Lol, cats can tell the difference? Small birds are not endangered? ... so much wrong with your statement. Obviously can't be even close to true.
@@Derekisastro Cats sure do. Last year a pair of golden eagles came through my neighborhood. After they were here for a few weeks, I stopped seeing any cats passing through my yard. That is, the birds ate the cats, instead of the cats eating the birds. :-) The birds that cats kill are usually the small birds that thrive in urban areas, like sparrows, starlings, doves, etc. They are definitely not endangered. Generalizations like I made will always have exceptions, so you will be correct in particular cases.
@@prismgems unfortunately, by your own admission, your generalisations are, I think, too generalized. You really need to look into the data on what species, birds and others, that cats have affected. Not only do cats kill endangered birds (and other animals) they are also the leading cause of many species becoming endangered. Likewise, you really need to show the data on what endangered birds wings turbines, apparently selectively, kill. As much as your anecdotal story is interesting, it is just that, an interesting story. A far cry from any actual useful data. Many, many assumptions and extrapolations based on that anecdote. I really hope your initial statement is based on a whole lot more than just your personal anecdotes. I fear they may not be.
@@Derekisastro he doesn't need to show anything. I believe what he says to be true. What he says seems very plausible and believable. Your request for precise data and studies is not warranted. If you want that much detail then look it up yourself.
I just recently stumbled across your channel and have subscribed. This is my 2nd video. My wife and I really enjoyed your long term solar experiences as we are considering doing the same. I am a huge fan of wind also but these huge wind turbines need to be sited in proper locations away from residential areas and areas of natural beauty. Cats eat a lot of birds around the house such as sparrows and robins but typically do not eat large raptors, bats and eagles that can nest much higher in the air. The bases for wind turbines can also disrupt ground water and wetlands and ruin prime farmland during construction. Why do we not talk about conservation anymore? Old computers and technology are wasting far too much energy as well. I'm retired from the agency formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service. Looking forward to learning from you! Appreciate your enthusiasm.
Thanks for doing this segment. Very interesting. I have been interested in wind generated energy to supplement my 13.2 kWh solar PV system. I need something to supplement our energy generation between November and February, when our solar underperforms up in Edmonds, WA. Keep doing topics like this.
Current wind turbines produce far more carbon during their production than they ever manage to offset in their operational life span. I just think any discussion of Windpower should always include that note. Nothing's as green as Nuclear, but I'd rather have solar or wind anyway, just better than we have now. Thank you for mentioning the inherent energy losses present in centralized systems. Decentralization is the way of the future, and someday every home will have its own power generation/storage. Other areas we waste power is in how we use that power in our homes and businesses. Light, heating/cooling, circulating air, etc can all be offset with a more intelligent design, making renewable power a more obtainable goal. Still, the biggest danger we face to seeing that future is a belief that any one of these solutions is "The Answer." We need a variety of solutions all working in tandem.
Finally someone got it right. I worked on them for two years. They are anything but green. People that say that don't know shit. They are high maintenance too.
The vortex shedding is extremely interesting, but I wonder if it may produce some frequencies that have an impact on nature. I'm a big fan of Vawt's and really like the power pod design.
The interior of the wing has a flow fence matrix designed to force distributed pressure along the trailing edge. The air gap in that trailing edge is huge at the designed scale, and should, as predicted, not produce pressure differentials that might induce harmonics.
My thesis of undergraduate was about OWT(offshore wind turbine) under storms surge, i found it awesome, i would like to pursue my master's in that domain.
If you do, please make a company to sell efficient wind turbines for a household, or even for a vehicle. I mean, if you use it while the vehicle is stationary, it will generate power. If you use it while the vehicle is moving, it will only deflect the wind sideways, so it's beneficial if you put a small wind turbine in front of the vehicle, as there are youtube videos out there. For example, "Mileage Results You Won't Believe!!! - Wind Power on a CAR #5 " by youtube channel " Quint BUILDs". Also check out the videos "Dirt Simple Energy Storage | In Depth" by "Now You Know", "The Future of Solid State Wind Energy - No More Blades" by "Undecided with Matt Ferrell", and "Agrivoltaics. An economic lifeline for American farmers?" by "Just Have a Think".
What studies have been done about the polarity of rain water that is changed once it hits the ground? If we are harnessing the positive polarity of the rain water, I'm fairly certain mother nature does as well.
@@MrFridgadarethe advances in solar and storage (better and more affordable tech, including transition to EVs) will allow individuals and businesses to be more energy independent. This will trigger a change in the energy model as never seen before. Energy providers may not want it to happen, but they should count on it. It is inevitable imo.
The potential is there. Decentralized power production is common in the Third World and War Zones. People like the convenience of centralized power, as they like the convenience of centralized anything (A/C, Government, etc.) - until it breaks down and things decentralize again.
Thanks for the demonstration, I like the idea of micro farms to generate the electricity, small/micro hydroelectric power plants or geothermal. Years ago people were talking about harvesting the power of ocean waves - perhaps all these ideas started when the oil industry were supreme and therefore didn't survive the economics of its time. Now 50+ years later it may have a chance to be be explored once again. I would like the large industrial complex to general their own power this would force them to be more efficient on the eletricty usage. I knew a textile company which was producing its electricity and the extra was being sold to complement the city needs, this was very helpful to all.
You also need to include the cost and environmental impact of the turbine blades. The cost to make them, the materials used and the almost inability to get rid of them once they've been damaged (usually due to wear on their front edge) and need to be replaced. There are literal graveyards of blades that we can't recycle and won't decompose.
I’ve been paying my power company for “blue power” for years. It is more expensive, but is supposed to help put in more big wind turbines. I would love the Vertical Wind Turbine in a pinwheel design, possibly more than one depending on how high they have to be. The other would be the Pot, although I’m not sure how much wind I get here on a regular basis (currently the wind speed at the nearby airport is 5mph), and again, how high off the ground it would have to be in this neighborhood with its mature trees and landscaping. The parasail type thing would be right out for homes like mine in a city airport flit path, or in the airspace of smaller airports.
Part of the issue of the lack of adoption of even micro wind turbines is that in the UK planning permission is required for a micro generator to be attached to the property. Planning permission is not required if it is not attached to the main property but does require a large area to be available around the turbine for which many properties do not have.
Thanks. I think the key will be a workable mixture of large power 'farms', medium-small projects such integrating in a business park, and individual solutions. Several of the ideas you featured could be placed on top of buildings, and the wire frames might even be integrated into fencing. Integration will be the challenge - at all scales. It's exciting to follow all the ideas people are coming up with, and I certainly hope many of them come to fruition. tavi.
My concern of the vortex designed generator is if it produces any kind of low frequency sound. Low frequency sounds have been known to be a health issue for people and animals.
This pod based wind turbines that could go on your home are the most interesting. Although compared to solar anything with moving parts also add maintenance cost to keep it operational.
The saddest part of the story is that wind often carries a lot of unwanted materials, especially sand and dried leaves, which are likely to clog all moving parts
I personally prefer vertical turbines over horizontal turbines. Vertical turbines are easier to maintenance, insensitive to wind direction, and are far less sensitive to air turbulence so they don't require trees being cut down to reduce air turbulence. And you can cram a lot more of them into a given, high wind area due to the lack of sensitivity to air turbulence - such as other wind turbines.
Great video . As usual you held my interest and efficiently explained the concepts. This is in stark contrast to other channels that tease and waste time just to extend watch time. I selfishly hope for success of your channel. Decentralization fights economy of scale when it comes to wind power but that seems to have stimulated some really clever solutions. I remember seeing a vortex idea from the 70's that used a large delta wing to create vortexes that were harvested by smaller props mounted above on either side of the rear of the wing. It was said to be able to use very low wind speed effectively.
“I hope we can now stop minimizing and trivializing the impacts that outdoor cats have on the environment and start addressing the serious problem of cat predation,” said Darin Schroeder, the group’s vice president for conservation advocacy.
Skybrator is now my new favorite way to refer to those standing bladeless turbines. I think you missed a few levels of magnitude for the EWECon. You stated that it would take over 500 nozzles, which is technically correct, but 2.1 mV to a KV would be closer to 500,000x
These vortex shedding wind powered generators are a bit of a mouthful... But I can see them being popular with the ladies. Maybe if we gave it a friendly acronym.. Vortex Inducement for Better Resonance And Tuning Of Resonator
No matter what renewable device is designed, none will ever be worth buying. They tell you it'll only take between 10-30 years to get your money back for buying it, and the reality is the thing will require repairs and maintenance such that you'll never get your money back. And if there is a super efficient low maint device created, the company creating it will raise the price to make sure that you never get your money back. In our city we have 1 windmill, we have the option to choose to get all our home energy from this windmill, if we agree to pay double for our energy. Renewable energy is never worth it.
I hear you on the decentralisation of power generation ( : I’ve been interested in the piezoelectric effect and wonder if there is much development going on into the use of this phenomena to generate power from vibration ?
My complaint with Wind turbines mostly has to do with disposal of those giant blades, the ease of which wind storms damage them, and how the giant wind farms ruin the scenery of massive swaths of land. I have no issue with these smaller one efficient ones.
The only problem with that is it may cause a little higher wind resistance for the cars causing them to use more fuel and thus offsetting any gains. Better to put them where there is natural wind. That being said, Detroit Metro airport has some in the center divider of the north entrance to harness the draft wind from both directions of cars passing by.
if you go to the Denver Airport and ride the train they have pinwheels as art that cost millions of dollars that spin as train passes through the tunnel. It produces nothing more than good feelings to watch. In government circles it's considered a rousing success.
There already testing them in Britain they're placing vertical wind turbines on freeways attached to light poles taking advantage of the airflow created by passing vehicles to power the light and traffic information.
It sounds great on the surface but is so inefficient that if the traffic is gasoline-powered, it causes many many times more pollution from the multiple conversion losses than simply running some gasoline-powered generators along the freeway, which is still terrible. With electric cars the environmental impact may be lesser, depending how the electricity was generated, but still horribly inefficient due to 10+ conversion stages from the car charger to the street light. I vaguely recall some concept of using piezzo elements in the pavement to generate electricity from passing cars, if that works it would be far more efficient.
And thanks for the vid. You are part of the reason I just purchased two Makemu vertical wind turbines from Italy, where the diving Euro against the dollar, has made them more affordable.
I like what you say in the end about finding creative ways to integrate these wind technologies into everyday life. When I saw that 'vibrator' all I could think of is user experience and adoption. I don't think people would be able to get past it. 🤣
I like the Halcium power pod. I put my name on the list I have a small hill as tall as the house. I would like to put one up on top to capture what appears to be a constant breeze up there.
Put a vertical windmill on every streetlight post (possibly going around the pole) Adaptor plates can be used for different pole types (steel, concrete or timber) so the same units can be used (cheaper to manufacture), they don't need to be big or expensive as there would be thousands of them generating 24/7 as smaller units require less wind to produce power ( I was thinking recycled plastics for the majority of construction).... streetlights are also already connected to the electricity grid , saving on infrastructure ... they could be cheaply made , installed by technicians during routine maintenance and supply power where it's needed (where there are lots of people)... if a unit fails, just replace with a new unit and repair the broken one at your leisure.
Great video! I look forward to seeing much more decentralized wind power generators in a price range that is affordable to the average homeowner. Keep up the good work.
The biggest weakness of wind power is that when it gets really cold, like minus 20-30 degrees Celsius, and people need the power the most, there is usually no wind and the wind turbines don't produce any energy. We got a glimpse of such a situation in Europe a couple of months ago.
you messed up the math on the tennis racket generator, the output power of each nozzle is 2.1 milliwatts, 500 * 2mw is one singular watt. not a kilowatt. for a kilwatt you would need 500,000 nozzles with an area of 14,000 sq meters. that is not going to be mainstream.
Unlike solar, I don't think small scale wind, especially home rooftop wind, holds much promise. In general, you need to get the blades (or whatever) WAY up there to get into steady wind flow, and even that happens in a few geographic locations.
Community based power storage. It would allow communities as a whole to tap into whatever is viable for their homes and the excess energy would be better distributed, as well as any sold back could go to sustaining the system and even help funnel money I to community resources where needed. Let's take back ownership of the grids.
I like this this presentation for extending the possibilities. I have been a large fan of solar and wind (which is solar power in a converted form) since the 70s when I learned about wind power that supplied farming communities before REA. Admiral Byrd took a wind generator (I believe a Jacobs model) to the South pole and decades later subsequent explorers on had to UN-tether the device to receive full output. We can use many sources but the stumbling block has always been storage since the wind is not always predictable. The vertical axis air impeller was invented in the US nearly 100 years ago. It never needed to be directed to the wind because it already was for 365 degrees. This is a new technology and it's not likely we can changes without gradual transition. You talked about bird kills be seemed to dismiss it with comparison to cat kills. I will tell you that Bat kills are much higher. We have migrating Bats in my part of the country and we used to see 8-12 bats flying in our back yard catching insects and making our lives better every night. The Wind Farms went up and the bats were reduced to 0 and even a few years 1-2. The three bladed wind generators make a sound when rotating like the wind blowing over the mouth of a cave and the Bats are drawn to it. Since the blades have an articulated swing, the Bats can't hear them coming from the side and are slaughtered. There are piles of their carcasses under the wind generators. We need a better total focus for this to be a complete solution that claims 'Green.'
You cannot just "fit more of them in the same space". They will generate vortices in the airflow around them and you would not be able to place another of these in an area affected by these vortices without lowering the efficiency of both.
The same issue applies to HAWTs. With vortices taken into account, one can put multiple VAWTs on buildings and around buildings. One can’t put any HAWTs in the same space due to the clearance required to spin blades on HAWTs. Even when you can put in an HAWT, they produce much larger vortices affecting a much larger area especially when the HAWT rotates on its horizontal column to catch wind from different directions.
This isn't necessarily true the way it is for HAWTS. There are people experimenting with VAWT vortices that might actually improve the air flow over the following rows. The biomimicry of fish schools.
I'm planning on using wind, solar and water for my off-grid home. I think using these power sources in combination is the best solution for my purposes.
I've been literally been writing a simple paper for a master course. However, I think you missed one thing. The Ewicon concept in Delft looks like it has been killed. I have not been able to find any new information about the Ewicon since 2013. The idea from Epstein does look a lot better. Your overview of the Vortex Bladeless concept is quite good! I have tried to go into more depth, but its magic is in the alternator and magnet combination. Your video is a great starting off point for further research! Nice video!
Why harness the wind instead of ocean rides or current? The ocean is way more powerful than the wind if you are at the beach. Plus underwater elements are mostly invisible and don't take up scenery and livable space
Yes but what about the living space of ocean creatures? Who mostly live near the shore actually but then international ocean 🌊 rights need to be figured out beyond 200mile limit.
I would love to see residential wind energy solutions, but I have never see a tech that makes them practical at all, at least when compared to solar. Our best bet for a real green energy solution is off shore wind. They produce 3x the energy per name plate watt when compared to on shore turbines, they don't block the view because they can be placed so far off shore you can't see them. They also provide a fish habitat around the structure that helps restock our oceans, they might even be able to blunt the effect of major storms. Also in the US the majority of our population lives near the coast. On top of all this they turn 24 hours a day unlike solar. I haven't seen any green energy ideas that come anywhere close to the value proposition of off shore wind.
I think that if civil wind turbines will be more widspread, there will be regulations to prohibit placing them along train ways, as harvesting wind energy off mooving train is essentially taking some of it's power and loose some of it during the process, so it will require some extra energy harvesting and probably increasing carbon footprint in the process
Yes. All good to test for decades for the future if they are this much better..except that power pod one. Itll still require more maintenance. The others avoid pretty much just that. Just my opinion.
I would very much like a move away from centralized power generation. Just eliminating transmission losses should be enough motivation for developing that I'd think.
My questions on wind farms. 1. How much lubricant does one wind turbine use and how often does it need to be changed 2. What happens when a turbine is decommissioned?
I want to get a vertical wind turbine in our back garden. Due to the arrangement of the houses and trees around here, out back yard is part of a mini wind tunnel. Even if the is no wind out the front, there is constantly at least 2-3mph wind but its usually more like 5-7mph. So we can generate some for most of the year, but in spring and autumn we tend to get 20mph winds in the back yard regularly.
Another environmental impact I didn't notice you mention for wind turbines is the relative difficulty of disposal of materials once a wind turbine has reached the end of it service life. Some of the chemicals (such as the exterior paint) and components are pretty nasty things to end up in a landfill.
My wife collects skybrators, I saw them in a drawer. I never knew how environmentally in tune she was, though I am hardly ever home, but my neighbor AL helps her with window cleaning and stuff while I'm away.
Considering my age, now 65, I have seen all but one having been proposed in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s... and so on. As a child I'd read my father's 'Popular Science' and 'Popular Mechanics' magazines. So I am going to have to go with all of them leaning heavily toward pie in the sky... but I am sure the grant money is good.
great video - it would be good to see an update on the tech in this video in the future to see if they made to the market and more detail on their capacity
FYI, environmentalists encourage people to reduce/give up coffee for a variety of issues, but including cutting down forests in the Global South to grow coffee, which means reducing the amount of C02 that can be taken out of the air and also the energy used to transport and heat coffee.
Why would it, since there is no contact or impacts.!.!. I have built a 10 foot tall savonius also, and it makes a small swishing sound in high winds.!.! I put a "bell-tinger" on it to give an audible indication of the wind speed. It makes a small gain of E- power.
I saw a stat that cats tend to kill common birds, while windmills tend to kill endangered birds. If true there’s an opportunity for motivated folks to problem solve.
On a personal level, storage is an easy fix. Thanks to LiPO batteries becoming more affordable and available, it's not hard to store all incoming solar and wind energy you might collect. Also, with sufficient storage, and a powerful enough inverter, you could easily power air conditioning plus all your other normal appliances, using just renewable energy. But that's on a small scale, such as single homes. Large scale renewables simply do not have the means to store collected energy. The winter storm a few months ago in Texas proved that. That's why large scale solar and wind is just not feasible, for most locations. SoCal is a really good location for both solar and wind. But that is not true for New England states. I have property in Texas that is perfect for building an off-grid home, just look up earthships. And we as a nation (USA) need to sop building outward, and start building upward. Tall buildings can easily accommodate small businesses and schools on lower floors, with residential and green spaces spaced out moving up. Wind can easily be used in conjunction with green floors (picture a community garden for the residential floors directly above and below it). Urban food production is an increasingly popular thing, and people need green spaces for their kids to run around and play.
@@ericg7183 Well, I wish I could afford the proper batteries to simply run a tiny window AC unit. It cost a fortune but I can now power a small freezer during a power outage for a day or two. If clouds roll in though. I know very few people who can afford the proper batteries for even a tiny solar system. I was able to power a 5 cubic ft freezer for 24 hours at a cost of 700 dollars minimum.
I'm pretty positive about alternative energy sources (no pun intended), but there are a few negative comments here regarding personal cash benefits versus other power sources such as solar. But I think its the wrong approach. If small communities came together and installed both wind and solar systems on or around properties they could collectively make significant savings over national grid prices. Solar fades as the sun goes down but wind can supply power throughout the night and day. A mix of both technologies utilising suitable rooftop locations and open remote clear wind swept area locations could be very profitable in respect of power harvesting. The time will come when we will have to depend on this kind of technology so the sooner we work out the best way of employing it, the better we will be.
In order to do this, you have to change many federal, state, county, and municipal laws which require grid power to be installed anywhere one has buildings occupied for living or for business. For example, New Mexico forced a Michael Reynolds and other earthship builders to run grid power to their properties “for safety reasons”. Depending on the distance of your building from the current grid, laws identify who has to pay for the the cost of installing all the equipment to get power from the current grip to the new location. Sometimes, the building owner must cover a potion of the cost. The building owner won’t own that portion of the grid for which they paid, nor will the building owner be able to prevent the power company from siding that grid to supply other buildings at a later date or profit from it. In some areas, the power company can install equipment on the private property in between the current grid and the new building affecting other property owners.
@@davidscbirdsall Hi David, I guess that around the world there will be many variations on the theme of who does what and who pays etc. In the UK we can send solar power back from our domestic arrays into the national grid through an interface which works out the costs either way and the home owner can sell excess power back to the grid. As we are really talking about massive changes to the power distribution networks right through to domestic users in order to achieve a workable renewable energy system there will no doubt be many questions around how best to make the thing affordable, so your points are well made, now we just need the solutions. Geoff.
@@geoffcampbell7846 We can do that here in the US, if you have permission to hook your local power to the grid. The power company as well as the state, county, and city must approve your systems meets various codes before grating you that permission. Even when you can connect to the grid, many states have laws that state no matter how much electricity you provide to the grid, you only get paid for what you use from the grid. This means that if you have used $40 of electricity from the grid overnight and you provide $100 worth of electricity to the grid the next day, you only get a credit for the $40 to put you back to $0 owed to by you to the power company and $0 owed by the power company to you. You don’t get paid for the extra $60 of electricity supplied to the grid, and the power company can sell that power to another customer without owing you anything. You can have an automatic meter that switches between grid power and your local power, so that you maintain an exact $0 balance, but these systems are much more costly than some people want to pay. Some power companies will rent the smart meter to you for a fee, but over time, you’ve really just bought more meters for the power company which they rent to other customers. If your local power system doesn’t meet code for connecting to the grid, or if you don’t want to connect to grid, you can manually switch between the two power supplies, but there must be a pause of 6 or more seconds between one power source and another. Regardless of what you decide to do, in many places you have to notify the power company that you have local power even if you don’t connect it to the grid. The power companies in the US always control the meter, and they always have the ability to come onto your property at any time to lock out your meter, to prevent power from entering the grid from your home. This can be done when the power company is doing work on any part of the grid that can be energized by your home power system. Normally you’re given at least 24 hours notice before this happens, but in emergencies or disasters, they don’t need to notify you before locking you out from grid power. I’m sure this is very similar in many parts of the world.
The most important thing to consider here is that power usage across an area changes throughout the day, and power production has to with it too. You can’t send energy to the grid if there is no one consuming the energy. At times when there is a studded demand for energy (people turning on things at once like they do when they first wake up or come home from work later in the day), power must suddenly increase power production. Peak Time in many area is later in the day when most people are coming home from work and the sun is going down. The community has to develop a unified way to notify power producers when to provide power to grid and when to stop supplying it like power companies have with power generation companies.
I would love to put some vertical turbines by my home! I am on a hill and right beside my home the wind blows rather hard there almost all the time! I have been wanting to do this for a while. I can't wait for it to be more easily accessible.
There has already been a trial in England of small vertical wind turbines on the side of a stretch of motorway. Makes so much sense. It proved successful. Hopefully it gets rolled out.
Seriously? That's already been done in California and along the Cokumbia river gorge between Oregon and Washington State. They are an eyesore, and they've already cost the area major chunks of industry and lead to less grid reliability. Weather-dependent generation is and has always been crap. Coastal wave motion is a far more viable option, since it's constant. Using waves to drive UNDERWATER pump vanes to generate power onshore would seem to make it about as baseline capable as possible. As an added potential benefit, a series of pump vanes could slow wave erosion of coastal areas. Since most of the largest cities are on coastlines, this would seem to be a far better solution than pinwheels and smoke and mirror solar, which covers almost 1000% more resources, for less than 30% of the power.
Vertical wind turbines are not as efficient as horizontal ones. Since we know what direction the wind will come from (the cars on the highway), I wonder if small, horizontal wind turbines would be a better option. I do recognize the necessary orientation of the wind turbine might make it impractical, but its a thought.
At nearly seventy, the design work I did on bladeless turbines in the nineties still haunts me. At the time, there was no interest I could connect with. About five years ago, I 3D printed a scale model of the most promising of the work. The physics are valid, and one element has appeared. But the overall design will likely only become a little known and lost concept. Keep up the good work.
Mate that's awesome!
Would love to sit down and have a beer or a coffee with you!
I'm curious, which of the designs mentioned in the video was yours? Or did you come up with something that remains completely unique? I'd love to hear the details... wind power as a concept is fascinating to me, but I dislike traditional bladed turbines.
@@crazycanadian7223 None in the vid were mine. Difficult to explain without the pictures. But in essence, imagine an 80 meter tall shaped tube (shaped to manipulate pressures and velocities) where the base held an internal turbine and the inlet, and the top, a wing which swiveled into the wind. The trailing edge had a full span slot. As air passed over the wing, the low pressure region at the traling edge drew air up the tube through the turbine. The top surface of the wing had PV which drove a compressed air jet to impart rotation to the turbine when the air was too light to drive the turbine at speed. The turbine blade assy also acted as a flywheel to mitigate rotational speed drops. Simple concept. Passive to birds, and far more attractive. I'd upload pix if possible.
@@kevatut23 That's quite interesting and very unique, I think can picture the configuration but I'd certainly like to see a picture - maybe you could upload to a site like Imgur or something and link it here? I don't _think_ UA-cam filters links in comments.
Sounds like a lifetime of work for naught
The Power Pod looks amazing. I've been researching, getting ready to install a solar roof and would love to also channel wind energy. But the idea midway through the video of placing a vertical generator next to a train track seems like it could be a golden idea. I'm just imagining what a mile long stretch of those on both sides could do. It also got me thinking about other man-made wind tunnels. I remember working in downtown, where the tall buildings created winds in the winter that were so strong you couldn't walk into it at times, and what kind of energy that wind could generate.
Yes, some 'bad' city planning make good spots for energy generation. Alley between buildings, we might make their funneling effect pay for our energy bills.
They are installed on experimental basis on U.K. main highways to catch the funnel effect of passing cars (like the train example)
@@stephentsang259 ⁰
Like next to highways...
@@mastercommander4535
Saw your comment after I posted mine...
Suggestion: You should look into chapter marks (TimeStamps?) for videos like these.
Yes please make this happen already
One thing I’ve heard about birds in turbines is that larger birds specifically are effected disproportionately to smaller birds, like condors and other large birds
You are correct. The comparison was a false dichotomy, a logical fallacy. Those birds killed by the large windmills can potentially eat small cats, as well as dogs for that matter, especially dead ones.
@@DavidHalkovery interesting..allowing more cats to kill smaller birds
@@DavidHalko Hunters in the US shoot 15 million birds every year. They are not shooting sparrows.
As with all this green crap they have to lie and twist the facts. Cats are in equilibrium with sparrows. Giant condors, bald eagles and migrating geese are less expendable. EPA has introduced draconian regulations to protect all these bird species..... which the greenies instantly forget about when it comes to wind power. This is just another perverse outcome of the hysterical obsession about limiting CO2. ALL other reasoning goes out of the window.
Now we understand that ancient cultures were not worshiping phalluses but were working on bladeless wind generators.
for all we know, they could have been trying to copy *that weird thing they saw one time, that some people gave so much care to, that provided them with limitless power, which looked more or less like a giant vertical stick of some weird material*
Ancient cultures sacrificed humans to please the gods over the deadly weather, back when Co2 was at its lowest level.
Even the lowest IQ person can understand spending trillions to reduce Co2 levels is not money well spent.
Eventually we will need to go renewable. The means by which we arrive there will decide if we are free or enslaved.
They were doing both!
Ancestors: It doesn't vibrate... ok, this will be statue.
“We’re pretty big fans of wind.” I See what you did there. ;-)
Bam! Mic drop :)
@@TwoBitDaVinci I'm a 'very big fan' myself :D
"Skybrators" I see what you did here, too.
The road to clean energy is winding
🤣😂😁
This is from five months ago, but I'd love a yearly update on this and all your other clean power topics. This was an excellent and succinct breakdown of emerging technologies
i like the power pod because of its invisibility to anyone not close enough to already see you or your place of dwelling
The only concern is that there will be only one or two surviving options available as they prove more efficient than others, because we don't all live in areas that are suitable for some of these designs.
For example: I think the RAF would have something to say about a skysail hovering over my house, since they sometimes make very low flypasts.
The traditional wind turbine would be constantly criticised and reported by a particularly fussy neighbour.
Those ones with the wires - well, I can see them being a problem for birds that tend to swoop about at high speeds. I had a Merlin wedge herself in a large gauge wire mesh fence when hunting swallows.
So that would leave the VAWT (I'm currently looking into a way to heat or provide light for my greenhouse when I finally build it, so I can better grow veg plants through the winter). The VAWT looks the most promising, since I am hoping to find a way to build one rather than buy it. I have some parts, just have to make sense of the electrics book I'm currently reading. Not easy when you've never been interested in that sort of thing before!
If you live near any kind of river or creek you can build a hydroelectric system for pretty cheep that will put out about 500kw. UA-cam is a great source for learning electrical systems. 👍
Thanks for covering these smaller wind options! I am hoping to suppliment my 5kw solar PV and solar hot water with wind some day!
Vertical wind turbins are my favorite right now, but the Halcium :Power Pod looks really cool for my residence!!
Have you actually tried a vertical wind turbine?
I agree .. my question to them is if they have considered stacking them .. making a tower .. my other thought was making them smaller and lighter so that you could place more of them around your residence (roof caps / chimneys / gutters)
@@denale688 Why don't you just get one for starters, and when you realize you will never get a return on investment, you do not buy the rest? Compared to "traditional" windmills, these are notoriously inefficient.
@@tzenophile something has to be better than nothing .. in the areas that I was contemplating a windmill the neighbors would complain not to mention the city would most likely poo poo 💩 the conventional windmill
@@denale688 No. Sometimes nothing is the best strategy, that goes for many types of situations. In this case it is simple; you are spending money that you won't get back, and the device will not produce useful amounts of power. So it is not simply something, it is something that will have a negative impact. This is worse than gambling, for at least in gambling there is a small chance that you could win. Just get solar.
That expression you said from your heart at the end of the video is honestly the biggest thing I resonate with. I totally wish to see that type of future as well. Almost like we have all these little unique art structures all over towns that utilize natural energy from our ecosystem in all sorts of creative ways.
There is a project in the UK, to harness the wind generated by traffic. They are setting up vertical turbines on the central reservation (median US speak?) on part of the motorway between London and Dover, as a proof of concept.
I believe that there was also a thought of placing batteries in lamp posts for this project ..
It’s dangerous and doesn’t work so great in theory. The extra drag created is compensated by the vehicle, there fore more fuel being used. It’s been debunked a few times now, not sure why the same videos keep going around for them.
@@courtneypope1234 Exactly.
@@courtneypope1234 I've seen those turbines, they are about 3 feet tall and barely fatter than the lamp post they are mounted on! :)
If they create big drag, surely street signs and bus stops etc, would make even more?
The idea was to harvest waste energy from traffic.. Can you link a debunking video with sound math pls?
Goggling debunking these turbines gives me nothing....
@@courtneypope1234
Can you provide the name of the video that debunked them , please?
In southern Alberta the wind is always blowing, at one time we thought of a small vertical axis turbine on each fence post, just to keep our electric fence going… this was 30 years ago… now it actually seems to be a plausible idea
VAWT's can actually be quite powerful. All depends on how you design them, but they can spin extremely fast, are very stable and can spin in virtually no wind, due to, as you said omnidirectional. You can mount them down low, unlike HAWT's. The military use VAWTS, as they are low profile and easily deployed and safe and work on the ground.
I love the power pod! Seems simple, and easily allows for retrofit applications on existing homes. Plus they seem inocuous enough if mounted on your roof top.
Loved your take on the wind power .. I have been interested in the Vertical Access Turbines and the Halcium Power Pods seems promising for residential and commercial uses .. the Power Pod or VAWT's simular have peaked my interest for decades .. my thought was to stack them and place them in series .. or make them smaller and place them in series .. not only for trains but for highways especially for tunnels or overpasses .. the smaller versions could replace the aerators on garages that circulate air to dissipate heat .. the uses are basically endless .. thank you for putting out this video .. I am now a Subscriber
Vertical AXIS
I have always wanted to convert my furnace chimney into a wind pipe with vertical windmills inside of it and allowing the lower portion to vent to outside yielding a difference in pressure from roof to basement spinning the rotors out of view.
Paradoxically, being bird friendly means birds will try to nest there and foul it up.
"foul it up"
haha birb
@@TetraTimboman That would be 'fowl' it up.
Foul! Yellow card! Free kick given.
I doubt birds would try to nest on a quickly moving pole.
(Yes, though I should point out... cats generally kill small birds, while wind turbines can kill larger predatory birds)
-Matt
To be more precise, cats kill birds that aren't endangered, wind turbines kill endangered birds (and bats).
@@prismgems Lol, cats can tell the difference? Small birds are not endangered? ... so much wrong with your statement. Obviously can't be even close to true.
@@Derekisastro Cats sure do. Last year a pair of golden eagles came through my neighborhood. After they were here for a few weeks, I stopped seeing any cats passing through my yard. That is, the birds ate the cats, instead of the cats eating the birds. :-)
The birds that cats kill are usually the small birds that thrive in urban areas, like sparrows, starlings, doves, etc. They are definitely not endangered.
Generalizations like I made will always have exceptions, so you will be correct in particular cases.
@@prismgems unfortunately, by your own admission, your generalisations are, I think, too generalized. You really need to look into the data on what species, birds and others, that cats have affected. Not only do cats kill endangered birds (and other animals) they are also the leading cause of many species becoming endangered.
Likewise, you really need to show the data on what endangered birds wings turbines, apparently selectively, kill.
As much as your anecdotal story is interesting, it is just that, an interesting story. A far cry from any actual useful data. Many, many assumptions and extrapolations based on that anecdote. I really hope your initial statement is based on a whole lot more than just your personal anecdotes. I fear they may not be.
@@Derekisastro he doesn't need to show anything.
I believe what he says to be true. What he says seems very plausible and believable. Your request for precise data and studies is not warranted. If you want that much detail then look it up yourself.
I just recently stumbled across your channel and have subscribed. This is my 2nd video. My wife and I really enjoyed your long term solar experiences as we are considering doing the same. I am a huge fan of wind also but these huge wind turbines need to be sited in proper locations away from residential areas and areas of natural beauty. Cats eat a lot of birds around the house such as sparrows and robins but typically do not eat large raptors, bats and eagles that can nest much higher in the air. The bases for wind turbines can also disrupt ground water and wetlands and ruin prime farmland during construction. Why do we not talk about conservation anymore? Old computers and technology are wasting far too much energy as well. I'm retired from the agency formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service. Looking forward to learning from you! Appreciate your enthusiasm.
So glad to hear James! Glad to have you aboard!
Very interesting. I live in a climate that has loads of wind and not that much sunshine. This makes so much sense
FYI CO^2 is great for plants which in turn produce O^2. which is good for animals.
Thanks for doing this segment. Very interesting. I have been interested in wind generated energy to supplement my 13.2 kWh solar PV system. I need something to supplement our energy generation between November and February, when our solar underperforms up in Edmonds, WA. Keep doing topics like this.
Current wind turbines produce far more carbon during their production than they ever manage to offset in their operational life span. I just think any discussion of Windpower should always include that note. Nothing's as green as Nuclear, but I'd rather have solar or wind anyway, just better than we have now.
Thank you for mentioning the inherent energy losses present in centralized systems. Decentralization is the way of the future, and someday every home will have its own power generation/storage. Other areas we waste power is in how we use that power in our homes and businesses. Light, heating/cooling, circulating air, etc can all be offset with a more intelligent design, making renewable power a more obtainable goal.
Still, the biggest danger we face to seeing that future is a belief that any one of these solutions is "The Answer." We need a variety of solutions all working in tandem.
Finally someone got it right. I worked on them for two years. They are anything but green. People that say that don't know shit. They are high maintenance too.
Ah yes the giant neck massager 😆
The vortex shedding is extremely interesting, but I wonder if it may produce some frequencies that have an impact on nature. I'm a big fan of Vawt's and really like the power pod design.
The interior of the wing has a flow fence matrix designed to force distributed pressure along the trailing edge. The air gap in that trailing edge is huge at the designed scale, and should, as predicted, not produce pressure differentials that might induce harmonics.
My thesis of undergraduate was about OWT(offshore wind turbine) under storms surge, i found it awesome, i would like to pursue my master's in that domain.
If you do, please make a company to sell efficient wind turbines for a household, or even for a vehicle. I mean, if you use it while the vehicle is stationary, it will generate power. If you use it while the vehicle is moving, it will only deflect the wind sideways, so it's beneficial if you put a small wind turbine in front of the vehicle, as there are youtube videos out there. For example, "Mileage Results You Won't Believe!!! - Wind Power on a CAR #5
" by youtube channel "
Quint BUILDs". Also check out the videos "Dirt Simple Energy Storage | In Depth" by "Now You Know", "The Future of Solid State Wind Energy - No More Blades" by "Undecided with Matt Ferrell", and "Agrivoltaics. An economic lifeline for American farmers?" by "Just Have a Think".
What studies have been done about the polarity of rain water that is changed once it hits the ground? If we are harnessing the positive polarity of the rain water, I'm fairly certain mother nature does as well.
Decentralized power production and storage capability will be a major disrupter in the way we manage energy.
It will be a major disrupter to controlling populations. So it's unlikely to happen.
@@MrFridgadarethe advances in solar and storage (better and more affordable tech, including transition to EVs) will allow individuals and businesses to be more energy independent. This will trigger a change in the energy model as never seen before. Energy providers may not want it to happen, but they should count on it. It is inevitable imo.
The potential is there.
Decentralized power production is common in the Third World and War Zones.
People like the convenience of centralized power, as they like the convenience of centralized anything (A/C, Government, etc.) - until it breaks down and things decentralize again.
Thanks for the demonstration, I like the idea of micro farms to generate the electricity, small/micro hydroelectric power plants or geothermal. Years ago people were talking about harvesting the power of ocean waves - perhaps all these ideas started when the oil industry were supreme and therefore didn't survive the economics of its time. Now 50+ years later it may have a chance to be be explored once again. I would like the large industrial complex to general their own power this would force them to be more efficient on the eletricty usage. I knew a textile company which was producing its electricity and the extra was being sold to complement the city needs, this was very helpful to all.
You also need to include the cost and environmental impact of the turbine blades. The cost to make them, the materials used and the almost inability to get rid of them once they've been damaged (usually due to wear on their front edge) and need to be replaced. There are literal graveyards of blades that we can't recycle and won't decompose.
Cant the blades be recycled? If the materials are good...
I’ve been paying my power company for “blue power” for years. It is more expensive, but is supposed to help put in more big wind turbines. I would love the Vertical Wind Turbine in a pinwheel design, possibly more than one depending on how high they have to be. The other would be the Pot, although I’m not sure how much wind I get here on a regular basis (currently the wind speed at the nearby airport is 5mph), and again, how high off the ground it would have to be in this neighborhood with its mature trees and landscaping.
The parasail type thing would be right out for homes like mine in a city airport flit path, or in the airspace of smaller airports.
Some info on the power outputs of these devices would have been great.
next to nothing
He said the vibrator out out about 1/3 of what a traditional wind turbine does at 30-40% if the cost.
no torque at all. just a giant falic toy.
@@fiditenemini2452 giant phallic toys are a big businesses
@@steveb796 That makes no sense. That is like the question, how much does a traditional fish weigh?
Part of the issue of the lack of adoption of even micro wind turbines is that in the UK planning permission is required for a micro generator to be attached to the property. Planning permission is not required if it is not attached to the main property but does require a large area to be available around the turbine for which many properties do not have.
"Skybrators"!! love it!!!
A vibrator for titan
*How many watts can we make for free?*
Bob Dylon: The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!
Thanks. I think the key will be a workable mixture of large power 'farms', medium-small projects such integrating in a business park, and individual solutions. Several of the ideas you featured could be placed on top of buildings, and the wire frames might even be integrated into fencing. Integration will be the challenge - at all scales. It's exciting to follow all the ideas people are coming up with, and I certainly hope many of them come to fruition. tavi.
When individual power development is sold on to the grid at WHOLESALE then real progress can be made.
My concern of the vortex designed generator is if it produces any kind of low frequency sound. Low frequency sounds have been known to be a health issue for people and animals.
Your statement is fiction without sources.
This pod based wind turbines that could go on your home are the most interesting. Although compared to solar anything with moving parts also add maintenance cost to keep it operational.
True!
The saddest part of the story is that wind often carries a lot of unwanted materials, especially sand and dried leaves, which are likely to clog all moving parts
I personally prefer vertical turbines over horizontal turbines. Vertical turbines are easier to maintenance, insensitive to wind direction, and are far less sensitive to air turbulence so they don't require trees being cut down to reduce air turbulence. And you can cram a lot more of them into a given, high wind area due to the lack of sensitivity to air turbulence - such as other wind turbines.
Great video . As usual you held my interest and efficiently explained the concepts. This is in stark contrast to other channels that tease and waste time just to extend watch time. I selfishly hope for success of your channel.
Decentralization fights economy of scale when it comes to wind power but that seems to have stimulated some really clever solutions. I remember seeing a vortex idea from the 70's that used a large delta wing to create vortexes that were harvested by smaller props mounted above on either side of the rear of the wing. It was said to be able to use very low wind speed effectively.
“I hope we can now stop minimizing and trivializing the impacts that outdoor cats have on the environment and start addressing the serious problem of cat predation,” said Darin Schroeder, the group’s vice president for conservation advocacy.
I hope he got a good deal for believing flawed studies.
Skybrator is now my new favorite way to refer to those standing bladeless turbines.
I think you missed a few levels of magnitude for the EWECon. You stated that it would take over 500 nozzles, which is technically correct, but 2.1 mV to a KV would be closer to 500,000x
groundildo
could put a mini 5 watt turbine and small battery on/in street light poles to power the led lights
These vortex shedding wind powered generators are a bit of a mouthful... But I can see them being popular with the ladies.
Maybe if we gave it a friendly acronym..
Vortex
Inducement for
Better
Resonance
And
Tuning
Of
Resonator
🤣🤣
Ricky said SKYbrator, which won't funnel funding out of the personal enjoyment sector.
No matter what renewable device is designed, none will ever be worth buying. They tell you it'll only take between 10-30 years to get your money back for buying it, and the reality is the thing will require repairs and maintenance such that you'll never get your money back. And if there is a super efficient low maint device created, the company creating it will raise the price to make sure that you never get your money back. In our city we have 1 windmill, we have the option to choose to get all our home energy from this windmill, if we agree to pay double for our energy. Renewable energy is never worth it.
What about a wood stove? lol
I hear you on the decentralisation of power generation ( : I’ve been interested in the piezoelectric effect and wonder if there is much development going on into the use of this phenomena to generate power from vibration ?
I have been looking for little residential vertical wind turbines for years! Can't wait!
500*2mW = 1W, you meant to say 500 thousand nozzles / kW at 09:15.
My complaint with Wind turbines mostly has to do with disposal of those giant blades, the ease of which wind storms damage them, and how the giant wind farms ruin the scenery of massive swaths of land. I have no issue with these smaller one efficient ones.
I’d love to see turbines around freeways that could capture wind from passing by cars
The only problem with that is it may cause a little higher wind resistance for the cars causing them to use more fuel and thus offsetting any gains. Better to put them where there is natural wind. That being said, Detroit Metro airport has some in the center divider of the north entrance to harness the draft wind from both directions of cars passing by.
Yeah you literally be stealing the gas from the cars
if you go to the Denver Airport and ride the train they have pinwheels as art that cost millions of dollars that spin as train passes through the tunnel. It produces nothing more than good feelings to watch. In government circles it's considered a rousing success.
There already testing them in Britain they're placing vertical wind turbines on freeways attached to light poles taking advantage of the airflow created by passing vehicles to power the light and traffic information.
It sounds great on the surface but is so inefficient that if the traffic is gasoline-powered, it causes many many times more pollution from the multiple conversion losses than simply running some gasoline-powered generators along the freeway, which is still terrible. With electric cars the environmental impact may be lesser, depending how the electricity was generated, but still horribly inefficient due to 10+ conversion stages from the car charger to the street light.
I vaguely recall some concept of using piezzo elements in the pavement to generate electricity from passing cars, if that works it would be far more efficient.
And thanks for the vid. You are part of the reason I just purchased two Makemu vertical wind turbines from Italy, where the diving Euro against the dollar, has made them more affordable.
Let’s be real. Does any of these contraptions make enough power to charge a phone?
Yes
Reverse the technology and you create wind.....high power dc lines...hmmm.,
@Pavlo Kasperskyi lol best comment. 😂
A micro wind turbine creates a lot of constant power, if you do not live in a valley.
Centralized power systems exists so that those in power can regulate it, tax it, and control you. That is why decentralization is so resisted.
Put them in front of politicians and CEOs .... plenty of energy generated when they speak
@Glenn De Vries from their mouths or rear ends?.... 🤔... Suppose no difference?
Thanx for video. Be handy to have links in description
I like what you say in the end about finding creative ways to integrate these wind technologies into everyday life. When I saw that 'vibrator' all I could think of is user experience and adoption. I don't think people would be able to get past it. 🤣
With a vibrator like that, who needs a man?😂😅😁
Could you imagine a huge farm full of them?
@@razingcanez717 Could you imagine what graffiti artists will do to them? It will be a constant job cleaning them up.
Lol .. a rename may be needed .. maybe they should place a weighted cap (head) on top ;)
Do you think they come in black?😂
The Halcium powerpod is great for residential use. Neighbors can't complain if they don't know what it is, especially if it is painted to blend in.
I like the Halcium power pod. I put my name on the list I have a small hill as tall as the house. I would like to put one up on top to capture what appears to be a constant breeze up there.
Put a vertical windmill on every streetlight post (possibly going around the pole) Adaptor plates can be used for different pole types (steel, concrete or timber) so the same units can be used (cheaper to manufacture), they don't need to be big or expensive as there would be thousands of them generating 24/7 as smaller units require less wind to produce power ( I was thinking recycled plastics for the majority of construction).... streetlights are also already connected to the electricity grid , saving on infrastructure ... they could be cheaply made , installed by technicians during routine maintenance and supply power where it's needed (where there are lots of people)... if a unit fails, just replace with a new unit and repair the broken one at your leisure.
😊already operating in Rockingham w.a. (Australia.)
Great video! I look forward to seeing much more decentralized wind power generators in a price range that is affordable to the average homeowner. Keep up the good work.
Architacts should dovetail into roof design and financiers mortgage rates should include in deal
The biggest weakness of wind power is that when it gets really cold, like minus 20-30 degrees Celsius, and people need the power the most, there is usually no wind and the wind turbines don't produce any energy. We got a glimpse of such a situation in Europe a couple of months ago.
The Midwest and Great Plains would like a word about windless winters.
More bat friendly. I'm sure Batman will be glad of that
you messed up the math on the tennis racket generator, the output power of each nozzle is 2.1 milliwatts, 500 * 2mw is one singular watt. not a kilowatt. for a kilwatt you would need 500,000 nozzles with an area of 14,000 sq meters. that is not going to be mainstream.
This video is full of padding, but the list of new ideas in wind power was interesting.
No mention of windmills and wind generators, which have been in existence for decades. I enjoy you presentations.
Unlike solar, I don't think small scale wind, especially home rooftop wind, holds much promise. In general, you need to get the blades (or whatever) WAY up there to get into steady wind flow, and even that happens in a few geographic locations.
Community based power storage. It would allow communities as a whole to tap into whatever is viable for their homes and the excess energy would be better distributed, as well as any sold back could go to sustaining the system and even help funnel money I to community resources where needed. Let's take back ownership of the grids.
I like this this presentation for extending the possibilities. I have been a large fan of solar and wind (which is solar power in a converted form) since the 70s when I learned about wind power that supplied farming communities before REA. Admiral Byrd took a wind generator (I believe a Jacobs model) to the South pole and decades later subsequent explorers on had to UN-tether the device to receive full output. We can use many sources but the stumbling block has always been storage since the wind is not always predictable. The vertical axis air impeller was invented in the US nearly 100 years ago. It never needed to be directed to the wind because it already was for 365 degrees. This is a new technology and it's not likely we can changes without gradual transition. You talked about bird kills be seemed to dismiss it with comparison to cat kills. I will tell you that Bat kills are much higher. We have migrating Bats in my part of the country and we used to see 8-12 bats flying in our back yard catching insects and making our lives better every night. The Wind Farms went up and the bats were reduced to 0 and even a few years 1-2. The three bladed wind generators make a sound when rotating like the wind blowing over the mouth of a cave and the Bats are drawn to it. Since the blades have an articulated swing, the Bats can't hear them coming from the side and are slaughtered. There are piles of their carcasses under the wind generators. We need a better total focus for this to be a complete solution that claims 'Green.'
You cannot just "fit more of them in the same space". They will generate vortices in the airflow around them and you would not be able to place another of these in an area affected by these vortices without lowering the efficiency of both.
The same issue applies to HAWTs. With vortices taken into account, one can put multiple VAWTs on buildings and around buildings. One can’t put any HAWTs in the same space due to the clearance required to spin blades on HAWTs. Even when you can put in an HAWT, they produce much larger vortices affecting a much larger area especially when the HAWT rotates on its horizontal column to catch wind from different directions.
This isn't necessarily true the way it is for HAWTS. There are people experimenting with VAWT vortices that might actually improve the air flow over the following rows. The biomimicry of fish schools.
I'm planning on using wind, solar and water for my off-grid home. I think using these power sources in combination is the best solution for my purposes.
I've been literally been writing a simple paper for a master course. However, I think you missed one thing. The Ewicon concept in Delft looks like it has been killed. I have not been able to find any new information about the Ewicon since 2013. The idea from Epstein does look a lot better. Your overview of the Vortex Bladeless concept is quite good! I have tried to go into more depth, but its magic is in the alternator and magnet combination. Your video is a great starting off point for further research! Nice video!
Very intriguing! I have a wind mill I have not installed! We have 12k of solar! Have not checked with our town for Windmill permit yet!
Thank Ricky. That’s a cracking episode and one where you make a very convincing case for novel wind generation technologies.
lavle sale🤣🤣🤣😆😆🖕🖕🖕🖕
Why harness the wind instead of ocean rides or current? The ocean is way more powerful than the wind if you are at the beach. Plus underwater elements are mostly invisible and don't take up scenery and livable space
Yes but what about the living space of ocean creatures? Who mostly live near the shore actually but then international ocean 🌊 rights need to be figured out beyond 200mile limit.
Interesting thought! The power pod. Nuclear reactor cooling towers. Wind could be captured at the top.
And some of them do!
I would love to see residential wind energy solutions, but I have never see a tech that makes them practical at all, at least when compared to solar. Our best bet for a real green energy solution is off shore wind. They produce 3x the energy per name plate watt when compared to on shore turbines, they don't block the view because they can be placed so far off shore you can't see them. They also provide a fish habitat around the structure that helps restock our oceans, they might even be able to blunt the effect of major storms. Also in the US the majority of our population lives near the coast. On top of all this they turn 24 hours a day unlike solar. I haven't seen any green energy ideas that come anywhere close to the value proposition of off shore wind.
I think Vortex turbines could be popular in today's meme culture
I think that if civil wind turbines will be more widspread, there will be regulations to prohibit placing them along train ways, as harvesting wind energy off mooving train is essentially taking some of it's power and loose some of it during the process, so it will require some extra energy harvesting and probably increasing carbon footprint in the process
There's already some wind turbines near the car tax stop. (Sorry i dunno what's that called)
Probably need all of these for different use cases.
Yes. All good to test for decades for the future if they are this much better..except that power pod one. Itll still require more maintenance. The others avoid pretty much just that. Just my opinion.
Clicked on this video specifically for information about wildlife friendly, tiny home hybrid wind/solar power systems. I got what I came for. Thanks!
I would very much like a move away from centralized power generation. Just eliminating transmission losses should be enough motivation for developing that I'd think.
My questions on wind farms.
1. How much lubricant does one wind turbine use and how often does it need to be changed
2. What happens when a turbine is decommissioned?
The future is looking brighter and brighter.
I know! GLOBAL warming makes it seem like the sun is just getting brighter every day.
Crazy that we don’t actually come out with these products. Just Kickstarter photos and cgi videos
I think wind could be a huge supporting factor for our search on green energy, but onlyfor locally used storaged form.
Wow. That statistic about cats was great!
I want to get a vertical wind turbine in our back garden. Due to the arrangement of the houses and trees around here, out back yard is part of a mini wind tunnel. Even if the is no wind out the front, there is constantly at least 2-3mph wind but its usually more like 5-7mph. So we can generate some for most of the year, but in spring and autumn we tend to get 20mph winds in the back yard regularly.
Another environmental impact I didn't notice you mention for wind turbines is the relative difficulty of disposal of materials once a wind turbine has reached the end of it service life. Some of the chemicals (such as the exterior paint) and components are pretty nasty things to end up in a landfill.
My wife collects skybrators, I saw them in a drawer. I never knew how environmentally in tune she was, though I am hardly ever home, but my neighbor AL helps her with window cleaning and stuff while I'm away.
Considering my age, now 65, I have seen all but one having been proposed in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s... and so on. As a child I'd read my father's 'Popular Science' and 'Popular Mechanics' magazines. So I am going to have to go with all of them leaning heavily toward pie in the sky... but I am sure the grant money is good.
I've just bought "savonius" 300W wind turbine for testing in my house.
great video - it would be good to see an update on the tech in this video in the future to see if they made to the market and more detail on their capacity
FYI, environmentalists encourage people to reduce/give up coffee for a variety of issues, but including cutting down forests in the Global South to grow coffee, which means reducing the amount of C02 that can be taken out of the air and also the energy used to transport and heat coffee.
I was wondering while watching the Spanish oscillating design, wether it make a lot of noise.
Yup and you wouldn't want a large scale one wobbling near you either just incase.
@@will4may175 just don’t bend over
@@Robdontstop68 😂
They are a HOAX! fake tech!
Why would it, since there is no contact or impacts.!.!. I have built a 10 foot tall savonius also, and it makes a small swishing sound in high winds.!.! I put a "bell-tinger" on it to give an audible indication of the wind speed. It makes a small gain of E- power.
I saw a stat that cats tend to kill common birds, while windmills tend to kill endangered birds. If true there’s an opportunity for motivated folks to problem solve.
Sounds like we need better storage options
On a personal level, storage is an easy fix. Thanks to LiPO batteries becoming more affordable and available, it's not hard to store all incoming solar and wind energy you might collect. Also, with sufficient storage, and a powerful enough inverter, you could easily power air conditioning plus all your other normal appliances, using just renewable energy. But that's on a small scale, such as single homes. Large scale renewables simply do not have the means to store collected energy. The winter storm a few months ago in Texas proved that. That's why large scale solar and wind is just not feasible, for most locations. SoCal is a really good location for both solar and wind. But that is not true for New England states.
I have property in Texas that is perfect for building an off-grid home, just look up earthships. And we as a nation (USA) need to sop building outward, and start building upward. Tall buildings can easily accommodate small businesses and schools on lower floors, with residential and green spaces spaced out moving up. Wind can easily be used in conjunction with green floors (picture a community garden for the residential floors directly above and below it). Urban food production is an increasingly popular thing, and people need green spaces for their kids to run around and play.
@@ericg7183 Well, I wish I could afford the proper batteries to simply run a tiny window AC unit. It cost a fortune but I can now power a small freezer during a power outage for a day or two. If clouds roll in though. I know very few people who can afford the proper batteries for even a tiny solar system. I was able to power a 5 cubic ft freezer for 24 hours at a cost of 700 dollars minimum.
I'd like you to investigate biodigesters being used at home to make biogas for cooking and heating.
I'm pretty positive about alternative energy sources (no pun intended), but there are a few negative comments here regarding personal cash benefits versus other power sources such as solar. But I think its the wrong approach. If small communities came together and installed both wind and solar systems on or around properties they could collectively make significant savings over national grid prices. Solar fades as the sun goes down but wind can supply power throughout the night and day. A mix of both technologies utilising suitable rooftop locations and open remote clear wind swept area locations could be very profitable in respect of power harvesting. The time will come when we will have to depend on this kind of technology so the sooner we work out the best way of employing it, the better we will be.
In order to do this, you have to change many federal, state, county, and municipal laws which require grid power to be installed anywhere one has buildings occupied for living or for business. For example, New Mexico forced a Michael Reynolds and other earthship builders to run grid power to their properties “for safety reasons”. Depending on the distance of your building from the current grid, laws identify who has to pay for the the cost of installing all the equipment to get power from the current grip to the new location. Sometimes, the building owner must cover a potion of the cost. The building owner won’t own that portion of the grid for which they paid, nor will the building owner be able to prevent the power company from siding that grid to supply other buildings at a later date or profit from it. In some areas, the power company can install equipment on the private property in between the current grid and the new building affecting other property owners.
@@davidscbirdsall
Hi David, I guess that around the world there will be many variations on the theme of who does what and who pays etc. In the UK we can send solar power back from our domestic arrays into the national grid through an interface which works out the costs either way and the home owner can sell excess power back to the grid.
As we are really talking about massive changes to the power distribution networks right through to domestic users in order to achieve a workable renewable energy system there will no doubt be many questions around how best to make the thing affordable, so your points are well made, now we just need the solutions. Geoff.
@@geoffcampbell7846 We can do that here in the US, if you have permission to hook your local power to the grid. The power company as well as the state, county, and city must approve your systems meets various codes before grating you that permission. Even when you can connect to the grid, many states have laws that state no matter how much electricity you provide to the grid, you only get paid for what you use from the grid. This means that if you have used $40 of electricity from the grid overnight and you provide $100 worth of electricity to the grid the next day, you only get a credit for the $40 to put you back to $0 owed to by you to the power company and $0 owed by the power company to you. You don’t get paid for the extra $60 of electricity supplied to the grid, and the power company can sell that power to another customer without owing you anything.
You can have an automatic meter that switches between grid power and your local power, so that you maintain an exact $0 balance, but these systems are much more costly than some people want to pay. Some power companies will rent the smart meter to you for a fee, but over time, you’ve really just bought more meters for the power company which they rent to other customers. If your local power system doesn’t meet code for connecting to the grid, or if you don’t want to connect to grid, you can manually switch between the two power supplies, but there must be a pause of 6 or more seconds between one power source and another.
Regardless of what you decide to do, in many places you have to notify the power company that you have local power even if you don’t connect it to the grid. The power companies in the US always control the meter, and they always have the ability to come onto your property at any time to lock out your meter, to prevent power from entering the grid from your home. This can be done when the power company is doing work on any part of the grid that can be energized by your home power system. Normally you’re given at least 24 hours notice before this happens, but in emergencies or disasters, they don’t need to notify you before locking you out from grid power. I’m sure this is very similar in many parts of the world.
Apartments, malls, etc. can do, just what you are saying… and they should.
The most important thing to consider here is that power usage across an area changes throughout the day, and power production has to with it too. You can’t send energy to the grid if there is no one consuming the energy. At times when there is a studded demand for energy (people turning on things at once like they do when they first wake up or come home from work later in the day), power must suddenly increase power production. Peak Time in many area is later in the day when most people are coming home from work and the sun is going down. The community has to develop a unified way to notify power producers when to provide power to grid and when to stop supplying it like power companies have with power generation companies.
I would love to put some vertical turbines by my home! I am on a hill and right beside my home the wind blows rather hard there almost all the time! I have been wanting to do this for a while. I can't wait for it to be more easily accessible.
Nice, I always hoped they would line the highways with vertical windmills.
There has already been a trial in England of small vertical wind turbines on the side of a stretch of motorway. Makes so much sense. It proved successful. Hopefully it gets rolled out.
more nrg to make them than you get out of them ... and the maintenance nightmare. I'd rather make a flying unicorn.
Seriously?
That's already been done in California and along the Cokumbia river gorge between Oregon and Washington State. They are an eyesore, and they've already cost the area major chunks of industry and lead to less grid reliability. Weather-dependent generation is and has always been crap.
Coastal wave motion is a far more viable option, since it's constant. Using waves to drive UNDERWATER pump vanes to generate power onshore would seem to make it about as baseline capable as possible. As an added potential benefit, a series of pump vanes could slow wave erosion of coastal areas.
Since most of the largest cities are on coastlines, this would seem to be a far better solution than pinwheels and smoke and mirror solar, which covers almost 1000% more resources, for less than 30% of the power.
Vertical wind turbines are not as efficient as horizontal ones. Since we know what direction the wind will come from (the cars on the highway), I wonder if small, horizontal wind turbines would be a better option. I do recognize the necessary orientation of the wind turbine might make it impractical, but its a thought.
@@FUBAR733 Long term trials and learning from mistakes will take time.
Excellent design and there is no much wear and tear parts involved 👍