WIND POWER WITHOUT THE BLADES May 4, 2012

By Alyssa Danigelis

Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s “Windstalk”project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

The proposed design calls for 1,203 ““stalks,” each 180-feet high with concrete bases that are between about 33- and 66-feet wide. The carbon-fiber stalks, reinforced with resin, are about a foot wide at the base tapering to about 2 inches at the top. Each stalk will contain alternating layers of electrodes and ceramic discs made from piezoelectric material, which generates a current when put under pressure. In the case of the stalks, the discs will compress as they sway in the wind, creating a charge.

“The idea came from trying to find kinetic models in nature that could be tapped to produce energy,” explained Atelier DNA founding partner Darío Núñez-Ameni.

In the proposal for Masdar, the Windstalk wind farm spans 280,000 square feet. Based on rough estimates, said Núñez-Ameni the output would be comparable to that of a conventional wind farm covering the same area.

“Our system is very efficient in that there is no friction loss associated with more mechanical systems such as conventional wind turbines,” he said.

Each base is slightly different, and is sloped so that rain will funnel into the areas between the concrete to help plants grow wild. These bases form a sort of public park space and serve a technological purpose. Each one contains a torque generator that converts the kinetic energy from the stalk into energy using shock absorber cylinders similar to the kind being developed by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Levant Power .

Wind isn’t constant, though, so Núñez-Ameni says two large chambers below the whole site will work like a battery to store energy. The idea is based on existing hydroelectric pumped storage systems. Water in the upper chamber will flow through turbines to the lower chamber, releasing stored energy until the wind starts up again.

The top of each tall stalk has an LED lamp that glows when the wind is blowing — more intensely during strong winds and not all when the air is still. The firm anticipates that the stalks will behave naturally, vibrating and fluttering in the air.

“Windstalk is completely silent, and the image associated with them is something we’re already used to seeing in a field of wheat or reeds in a marsh. Our hope is that people living close to them will like to walk through the field — especially at night — under their own, private sky of swarming stars,” said Núñez-Ameni.

After completion, a Windstalk should be able to produce as much electricity as a single wind turbine, with the advantage that output could be increased with a denser array of stalks. Density is not possible with conventional turbines, which need to be spaced about three times the rotor’s diameter in order to avoid air turbulence. But Windstalks work on chaos and turbulence so they can be installed much closer together, said Núñez-Ameni.

Núñez-Ameni also reports that the firm is currently working on taking the Windstalk idea underwater. Called Wavestalk, the whole system would be inverted to harness energy from the flow of ocean currents and waves. The firm’s long-term goal is to build a large system in the United States, either on land or in the water.

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Las Gaviotas: A Sustainable Community Cut Off From the World Almost 40 Years Ago June 2, 2011

It sounds like something out of a fairy tale or a children’s book, a community deep in the wild jungle of Colombia, cut off from society almost 40 years ago. Then, after the rest of the world turned their back on them, they suddenly take great interest as it turns out this community has found something the rest of the world needs. Energy. And not just a new supply source but something even better. They’ve figured out how to be sustainable without outside influence or resources, reports The New York Times.

In the 1960′s a Colombia developer named Paolo Lugari, while on a road trip through the country, stopped at an abandoned parcel of land and imagined an entire village before his eyes. The land was so poor and the area so remote – “visitors” have to pass Guerrilla check points or fly in to make it there – that no one wanted to live there. Mr. Lugari was in his very early 20′s at the time. He wanted to find one of the hardest places to live and see if he could make it work. This was before the oil crisis of the 70′s, but even then he knew fuel and other resources would be scarce.

Today there are 200 residents and they, “have no guns, no police force, no cars, no mayor, no church, no priest, no cellphones, no television, no Internet. No one who lives in Gaviotas has a job title.” So what do they have? How did this community of 200 people create a society that is now the envy of urban planners, including Amory Lovins, around the world?

When you live in the middle of nowhere, you have to get creative. Initially scientists helped design the buildings, homes, laboratories and factories in the area but don’t come around much these days thanks to all of the violence. Today they have a solar kettle for sterilizing water and solar kitchen, and a 19,800-acre reforestation project with species chosen to produce resins for biofuels, as well as, for creating conditions upon which other native plants can flourish. A children’s seesaw powers the local water pump. Community members feel they are there to “try to lead a quiet life, depending on nothing but our own labor and ingenuity.” Sounds pretty idyllic today.

The reforestation project is one of the most successful in the world, considering that everywhere around it is still a “tropical desert.” To say Las Gaviotas is doing okay for itself is an understatement. People from outside the village trek to Las Gaviotas to earn $500 a month, which is double what they would earn in other rural areas. A mycorrhiz fungus was added almost 20 years ago to help break up and digest the poor soils and in its place other species grew up. They use the resin from the trees to power their motorbikes and tractors and sell the excess. When China dumped cheap resin imports in Colombia, the community was forced to drop their prices by almost 40% to compete.

It might sound like a fairy tale, but Las Gaviotas also has hardships too. Their remote location makes them a likely target for guerillas and organized crime trying to sneak shipments out to other areas, or at least likely that someone trying to hide something will stumble upon them. There are several guerilla and paramilitary groups that are located not too far from Las Gaviotas, but as one resident said, “we don’t take part in this war, and we ask those who enter our village to do so without their rifles. So far, for us at least, this has worked.” Journalists and visitors who have come this year must only stay the day and leave before dark under fear of kidnapping.

Also, the community itself is very small, and with only 12 children in school, many question how long this “experiment” can go on. As many of the residents have said, “we have survived. Maybe, at this time and place in Colombia, that is enough.”

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Massive Energy-Generating Wind Tower Proposed for Japan May 17, 2011

When considering wind power as an energy source, it’s best to think big. Japan-based ZENA Systems is working on developing a new type of wind energy generator that will dwarf anything before it. Read more: Massive Energy-Generating Wind Tower Proposed for Japan | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

The 50 meter-tall hexagonal building essentially acts as a huge scoop that compresses wind from all directions and then runs the rushing air through a series of ground-based generators. The ambitious project is the first of its kind, and it includes a desalination plant, on-site energy storage, and a visitors center. Details are sketchy on the viability of the design, but if it works out this wind concept could someday reach high into the sky to power our grid.

The company explains the operation as a three-point compression technique that takes wind from any direction and compresses and accelerates it through a wind tunnel in the middle of the hexagonal tower. The air flows downward to a series of turbines, which convert the wind’s energy to electricity. The company claims that the system is not constrained by the Betz limit value theory, which states that the maximum theoretical harvestable energy from the wind is 59.3 percent.

To stir the industry up even more, the design calls for on-site energy storage, which ZENA explains on their website: “The E.A.S. is a new energy storage system used to stock the energy generated by the Wind Tower system. This system uses vanadium concentrated solution diluted with nano water and pure water.” They have picked a location in Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan for the massive project.

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China Designs a Negative-Emissions Vehicle June 10, 2010

SAIC

The Nissan Leaf electric car has nothing on this.

The YeZ (a take on the Mandarin word for ‘leaf’) may look like something out of the next “Tinkerbell” movie, but the organic two-seater was designed by a real automaker, General Motors’ Chinese partner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).

The “negative carbon emissions” vehicle features an all-electric drivetrain that draws the bulk of its power from photoelectric converter mounted on the yez…uh, roof of the vehicle. Similar to the way a plant grows towards the light, the solar crystal films that make up the system can track the movement of the sun to maximize solar energy collection. Illuminated power lines that mimic the veins of a living organism carry the electricity to the battery of the vehicle via streams of light. Additional electricity is generated by small windmills mounted on each of the wheels.

Click here for SLIDESHOW

What takes the car to the new levels of environmental friendliness, however, is a body comprised of metal-organic framework materials, or MOFs, that capture water and carbon dioxide from the surrounding air through adsorption, and combine the two through a process of artificial photosynthesis that not only generates electricity, but also creates air conditioning refrigerant and “exhales” oxygen back into the atmosphere. Hence, “negative carbon emissions”.

Interested in buying one? There’s a short wait, about twenty years.

While the technology behind the YeZ is theoretically sound, SAIC admits that it will be 2030 – at least – before any of it has been developed to the point that something like this concept car can become reality. Oh well, maybe the grandkids will like it.

In the meantime, you can check out the YeZ at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, China.

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Japanese to Build World’s Tallest Building on Floating Lilypad May 15, 2010

Japanese scientists, engineers and financiers have begun work on a project that will make the construction excesses of Dubai look timid: a tower 3,300-foot high and a vertical farm balanced on a floating concrete lilypad.

The futuristic Green Float project promises to test the limits of technology.

Japanese scientists, engineers and financiers have begun work on a project that will make the construction excesses of Dubai look timid: a tower 3,300-foot high and a vertical farm balanced on a floating concrete lilypad.

By the year 2025, they claim, all the necessary technology should be ready to start building — assuming a suitable patch of calm, equatorial ocean can be identified.

At first glance, the Green Float project seems highly improbable: Artificial rafts have never been built on this scale before, much less ones capable of supporting what will be, by far, the world’s tallest building. Even the investment bank Nomura, which is the chief facilitator of the project, has not speculated on how much it will cost or who will pay for it.

Energy will be drawn from solar power, so plentiful sunshine is a must, while the structure of the island demands reliably calm waters, low wind speeds, predictable temperature and a low risk of tsunamis or typhoons.

The project is expected to lure a number of Japan’s largest technology groups and the research work has already begun at leading universities and engineering companies.

The engineering giant Shimizu envisages building the tower from super-light alloys derived from the magnesium in seawater. Once an island with a diameter of 3km is created, each new floor of the tower will be built at ground level, pushing the previous floor down into the sea. When the 3,300-foot mark is reached, the tower will be raised to its full height.

The huge circular base will be part mangrove plantation, part cornfields and part livestock ranch — all built on a lattice of 7,000-ton honeycomb pontoons.

For more, see the Times of London.

Wind Farms Could Power all of U.K. January 14, 2010

Windfarms to power all of England ?

A series of companies were issued permits by the British government Friday to develop offshore wind farms that will generate enough power to supply every home in the U.K.

RWE, Statoil and Centrica were among companies granted licenses to participate in Britain’s $120 billion energy program. Scottish & Southern Energy, Iberdrola’s Scottish Power and Vattenfall will also proceed with development.

The new farms will generate 25GW of energy, enough to power 19 million homes. This is in addition to the 8GW the U.K., the world’s largest generator of wind power, already produces.

A number of potential projects in U.K. waters could bring Britain’s total offshore wind capacity to more than 40GW.

Nine areas fit the licensing criteria based on water depth, wind levels and location.

The zones include sites in the Irish Sea, English Channel and various locations in Scotland. Construction could begin by 2013.

The expansion of offshore wind energy is part of a $160 billion strategy to boost renewable power and cut greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.

According to the British government, offshore wind has the potential to meet more than a quarter of the country’s electricity needs, provide the U.K. with up to 70,000 new jobs and generate $12 billion a year in revenue.

But it requires a major increase in manufacturing capacity, including greater production of turbines, offshore electrical systems and installation vessels.

There are fears the manufacturing base will be outsourced abroad to meet the increased demand more cheaply.

Ahead of the announcement, Greenpeace’s executive director John Sauven urged the government to make sure the jobs created were filled by British workers.

“Train and equip Britain’s workforce to ensure that the thousands of jobs that will be created are filled by British workers, and provide the economic certainty investors need to complete these projects on time and on budget,” he said.

Steve Remp, chairman of SeaEnergy, one of the companies seeking to develop offshore wind farms, said thousands of turbines the size of the landmark London Eye could soon be supplying as much as 30 percent of Britain’s electricity needs.

“It is realistic,” he said.

“We are talking about building 9,000 turbines. It is a colossal undertaking. It is another North Sea oil industry in the making.”

Source

UFO claim over wind farm damage January 8, 2009

UFO enthusiasts are claiming damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft.

The turbine at Conisholme lost one 66ft (20m) blade and another was badly damaged in the early hours of Sunday.

County councillor for the area Robert Palmer said he had seen a “round, white light that seemed to be hovering”.

Ecotricity, which owns the site, said while investigations continued they were not ruling anything out – but the extent of damage was “unique”.

The turbine is one of 20 at the Conisholme site, which has been only been fully operational since April 2008. The broken blade has been recovered and is being examined.

Local ufologists said they had received many reports of activity in the area and had teams searching for clues.

Mr Palmer said: “I actually saw a white light – a round, white light that seemed to be hovering.

“That is the only way I can explain it – it wasn’t a flare-like light – it was just round, white light with a slight red edge to it that seemed to be over the wind turbines.”

Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said the company was keeping an open mind about the incident.

“We don’t have an explanation at the moment as to what the cause was,” he said.

“We have been crawling all over it and have sent bits off for analysis to see if we can work out what caused it.

“Until we have some idea, some plausible explanation that it was not a UFO, I don’t think we should rule it out”.

He added: “To make one of these blades fall off, or to bend it, takes a lot.”

Numerous reports

Russ Kellett, from the Flying Saucer Bureau, said witnesses had told him of activity in the area.

“One saw what they at first thought was a low-flying aircraft on the Saturday evening and another heard a loud banging in the early hours of Sunday,” he said.

“This is the second most reports of activity we have ever had – I have had over 30 phone calls and emails.

“To hit two of the blades, any object must have been about 170ft long.”

But some technical experts have suggested a more mundane explanation.

Dr Peter Schubel, from the University of Nottingham, is an expert in the design and manufacture of wind turbine blades.

‘Military activity’

He said that if the turbine blade was still, it would take the equivalent of a 10-tonne load to do that kind of damage, but if it was rotating, or hit by a moving object, the force could be a lot less.

He said of the possible cause: “It’s definitely not a bird. It could be ice thrown from a neighbouring turbine that struck it.

“Most turbines have an anti-icing system on the blades and maybe it failed to prevent the ice build-up.”

The Ministry of Defence said it was not looking into the incident.

A spokesman said: “The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.

“Unless there’s evidence of a potential threat, there’s no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported.”

Ecotricity said it hoped to have the turbine back in action within a week.

Source

Climate Advisors Take Electric Road December 2, 2008

ANALYSIS
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The committee sees a major UK role for wind, but not for solar (Getty Images)

“Welcome to the electric future.”

That was the key message from the Committee on Climate Change, the government’s new advisory body, as it delivered its recommendations on how the UK should meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

There is a wealth of detail tucked away in its 500-plus page report.

It proposes five-yearly “carbon budgets” that the government should adopt, and suggests a range of policy options for achieving them – among which weaning the nation’s power providers off fossil fuels is clearly the priority.

The committee sees a rapid rise in the UK's use of low-carbon electricity. (CCC)

“One particularly important development is the de-carbonising of electricity,” the committee’s chairman Lord Turner told reporters.

“Once we de-carbonise generation, we can apply electricity to new areas such as road transport and the heating of buildings.”

By 2020, renewables – principally wind – could generate about 30% of the UK total. Efficiency improvements, nuclear – a “cost-competitive” technology – and carbon capture and storage (CCS) could all play a role.

Or could they?

“The targets are incredibly ambitious,” said Jayesh Parmar, a partner in the energy and utilities practice of Oliver Wyman, the global management consultancy firm.

Story continues here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7758752.stm

The “Green” Wonderland of Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 15, 2008

By Bob Ferrari

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is fast becoming “the place to visit and drop a lot of money”. The US is not the only country to figure out that the vast oil reserves of the Middle East are NOT endless. It is estimated that there is possibly 20-30 years left of oil production in the Middle East.

Brilliantly, the UAE leaders acknowledge this and have taken steps to protect their wealth from the pending oil outage. They have taken their vast oil wealth and are using it to develop Dubai at record breaking speeds. Every year there seems to be some development that seeks to out-do the previous record holder, not just in sheer height, but in some other extravagant design concept.

Here is one of the latest. 125 stories, with a turbine (propeller) – and a restaurant in the middle of the turbine, of course – is designed for the Dubai architectural wonderland by the British firm Atkins. As in all the developments in this future-looking city, this one also seeks to be completely self-sustained. A foward-looking-green and self-sustaining future plan that comes from the minds of those that are dripping in wealth from oil. The US needs to think along the same lines, certainly the country that has all the oil is doing so now.

Self-sustaining Anara Tower Dubai

There is a “hanging” garden every 27 floors…. and a huge swimming pool. The building is self-sustaining, as most of new projects for Dubai.

Sustainability from a city birthed from oil

Visit Anara Tower: http://www.anaratower.com/

More info on Dubai: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai

EU Seeks to Expand Energy Grids November 13, 2008

EU Energy Push

The European Commission has unveiled plans to diversify the EU’s energy imports and reduce dependence on Russia, the main gas supplier.

The EU will remain dependent on imported fossil fuels for many years to come, the Strategic Energy Review says.

Some member states “are overwhelmingly dependent on one single supplier,” the document says, without naming Russia.

More info after the Jump:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7727028.stm