Posted on by Hoef_Inge

Cheaper wind turbines

Last blog told about smart turbines. But what about a cheap one? Then there is the Airloom. It is a bunch of blades running on a oval track.

The Airloom looks like low tech, and yes, in a sense, it is.

The blades are 10 meter in length, mounted to a rail 20 meters high. The blades have a profile to let the wind make a lift power to forward and the blades move along the cable. The cable propels the generator and voila: there is the electricity.

The Test

It is tested with a 15 kiloWatt setup in Wyoming, USA. This is a small scale test, just for a 15 kW maximum yield. When extrapolated to a larger scale, it looks promising.

Comparison to the conventional 3 blade turbine

The disadvantage of the Airloom compared to the conventional three blade turbine is clear: the Airloom is build low, and there is much less wind.

But, you can put much more blades, and many more fields closer to each other, that per square surface you will get more yield.

The advantage is the price. Now, the estimates are that a kilowatthour generated by an Airloom would cost $ 0,13, whilst a conventional 3 blade generates our energy for $0,35 or more.

You can put the Airlooms way closer to each other than you can do with the 3 blade turbines, without disturbing the wind flows.

The cheap price is possible because of:

  • the low technology. The Airloom blades and construction can be built from normal materials, while the conventional blades and construction must be built from high tech carbon.
  • The transport costs. An Airloom construction for 10 MW fits in one container, while the transport of a conventional turbine, with its enormous blades, is a specialized job, sometimes taking a planning of one year ahead.
  • The maintenance is cheap. The materials cost not much, and especially the labour doesnot require any special efforts. The conventional 3 blade turbines on the contrary, require extreme costs, or it even can not be repaired.
  • The estetics, on land. Not much people like the 100 to 150 high wind turbines, dominating the horizon for many miles, of complete provinces. Many counties in the Netherlands have the policy to permit the enormous windturbines, just out of the necessity of power. If the Airlooms were built in stead, it would save a lot of horizon pollution.
Check out more on: Crazy, or Genius?

Realization

Just now, there has been found a sponsor/investor to build a larger scale field. If this would work according to the expectations, it could be the future for windmills on land.

We will keep you posted.

You are interested to build a small one yourself? Check out here and see it running.