LOW WIND SPEED GENERATORS
The National Renewable Energy Labs, a Facility of the US Department of Energy for renewable energy and energy efficiency research, is now focusing on Low Wind Speed Start Up Wind Powered Generators after 2 long decades of concentrating on Large High Wind Speed Turbines.
The focus at the US Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Labs, and others who focus and steer the 'future of wind technology development' has shifted to 'low-wind-speed energy capture'. We are already in position now to deliver the technology which enables the real value proposition for wind energy capture: wind energy present with as little as 2 to 5 mph wind speeds.
Excerpted from the US DOE Energy Efficiency and Rewnewable Energy Wind & HydroPower Technologies website:
To help meet America's increasing energy needs while protecting our Nation's energy security and environment, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is working with wind industry partners to develop clean, domestic, innovative wind energy technologies that can compete with conventional fuel sources. DOE's Wind Energy Program efforts have culminated in some of industry's leading products today and have contributed to record-breaking industry growth.
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Windbelt, Cheap Generator Alternative, Set to Power Third World
Published in the November 2007 issue of PopularMechanics.
Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well—there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. “With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).
Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes. “Kerosene is smoky and it’s a fire hazard,” says Peter Haas, founder of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, which helps people in developing countries to get environmentally sound access to clean water, sanitation and energy. “If Shawn’s innovation breaks, locals can fix it. If a solar panel breaks, the family is out a panel.”
Frayne hopes to help fund third-world distribution of his Windbelt with revenue from first-world applications—such as replacing the batteries used to power temperature and humidity sensors in buildings. “There’s not a huge amount of innovation being done for people making $2 to $4 per day,” Haas says. “Shawn’s work is definitely needed.”
Now if you want a
Small Wind Energy System in Western Maryland
... you need look no further than a Frederick Maryland entrepreneur with a radical concept... look at what Farmers did 100 years ago: Wind Energy Facts about Wind Powered Generators
Maryland Small Wind Energy System
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