FloDesign's jet engine-inspired wind turbine wins prizes

[DainBramaged]

The wind power business, dominated by international conglomerates deploying mature technology, is a tough nut to crack.

A small Massachusetts-based start-up, FloDesign Wind Turbine, this week won two clean-energy competitions with a "shrouded turbine" design that it says can generate three to four times more electricity than today's hulking wind turbines.

FloDesign Wind Turbine's design draws on its jet engine expertise from parent company, aerospace engineering firm FloDesign.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9945005-54.html





This is the future, amazing it took this long to figure out.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Rec post

[kristopher]

2. Me too.

This is the first nontraditional design that I'm not able to reject out of hand. I'm not a believer yet, but it has my attention.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Potentially much more rugged than the

gearless/tip generating type.

Stick this thing all the way up in the strong prevailing winds, instead of silly rooftop wind stuff.

[BadGimp]

3. reading the comments is as fascinating as the video/article

eom

[DainBramaged]

5. "Republicans.

They don't adopt to any technology until everyone else has done the hard work, then they act like they invented it."


LOL

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Romney's doing that now with policy ...

trying to deny Obama credit for saving Detroit AND killing OBL.

[Confusious]

18. I had a boss like that.

Everyone would wait for him to leave so they could get some work done.

[wack-o-matic]

7. old news?

when i was a sophmore in high school i read about this and it seemed cool. my physics teacher didn't quite understand it and skirted around explaining it, but now that i am in college and majoring in Engineering, i understand now why my HS physics professor rolled her eyes when I asked her about it. odd that the posts and replies say 2012, when they were actually posted in 2007/2008. i guess this new/old design makes "wrinkles in time" too. it's been a long time and as far i can tell, not one of these things have been sold. the company is about 6 or 7 years old now. where are they? who are the customers? 3-4X more power...hmmm, 3-4x more power than what? maybe they are comparing it to my roommates design..the wack-o-matic turbine. it's a pretty simple turbine based on immature technology. 1 flywheel, a flexible crankshaft, 1 gearbox (speed increaser gearing depends on the size of the extendable piston arm)..maybe a direct drive depending on size. we can't all be direct drive. it's easy to operate. all that is needed is a dimly lit dorm room, internet access, privacy ...and voila, you too can crank out 3-4x more jizz-o-watts.

[DainBramaged]

8. Maybe because certain turbine manufacturers have the market sewn up?

Top 10 wind turbine manufacturers by annual market share (installed capacity) in 2011 by IHS Inc.:[1]

1. Vestas 12.7%
2. Sinovel 9.0%
3. Goldwind 8.7%
4. Gamesa 8.0%
5. Enercon 7.8%
6. GE Wind Energy 7.7%
7. Suzlon Group 7.6% (inc Suzlon Energy (India) and REpower (Germany))
8. Guodian United Power 7.4%
9. Siemens Wind Power 6.3%
10. Ming Yang 3.6%

Welcome to DU.

[wack-o-matic]

9. its wack-o-matic

Dontcha think by now if it was making 3-4x more power, that one of those companies would have bought them? That they would have at least sold a few, with customers lined up around the corner? They raised lots of $$. Where did it all go? It goes back to my original question, 3-4x more power than what? if it works, they should be flying off the shelves with that kind of performance and lower cost of energy. I don't get it.

btw... the wack-o-matic my roommate made is going out to stores soon...try one...it's DITY

[DainBramaged]

10. Current technology is BIG props, lots-o-gearing

but since I don't work for the company, I simply posted an article of public interest.



Toodles till next time.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Let me see if i am understanding you correctly:

Your roommate has discovered a way to turn the energy of his frequent masturbation into electricity?

[wack-o-matic]

12. Wack-o-matic turbine

Weird science at it's best. Here's how it happened. During lab, our dept head sponsored a clean energy competition among our class. Brainstorm out of the box ways for low cost energy, renewable energy. Well we talked about this wind turbine design you posted to our mentors. After he picked himself up off the floor from laughing about their claims. He just looked at us an said. Goes to show you that even design from mental masturbation can be funded. I guess that was my roommates eureka moment. And the whack o matic was born. Its a trillion dollar market. Just the mech e class alone can power the dorms! 10 minute capacity factor. Gotta love it. The for her model comes out next semester. We're also working on a mobile system. Yeah we got an app for that too!!

[Warren DeMontague]

13. You seem to have an, ah, issue with the Flodesign turbine people.

Let me put it this way; if the numbers don't add up, if this thing is NOT economically producing energy at the significantly higher rates that are claimed, the data will be glaringly obvious, and impossible to hide for long.

Sort of like Mitt Romney's tax returns.

[Motown_Johnny]

16. A wool sock and some jumper cables running to a battery?

[Motown_Johnny]

15. They had me at "Archimedes screw for air"

Me want. I hope they scale these down for the rest of us. Having a traditional turbine on your roof isn't practical but I could see one or two of these (smaller ones) being very practical



I don't see the actual generator in the video. I assume it is behind the center of the hub for the fan itself.

[freethought]

17. This article was posted in 2008

I wonder if this outfit has sold one of these turbines. It may have been a winner in 2008 but now I am highly skeptical. The trend in wind turbines, at leas as I have seen, is the bigger it is the better it is. Some recent models from Siemens are HUGE, a single turbine blade is
246 feet. If they are put into wide use, great!

Does anyone know of any organization that has put this design to use?