As others have already said, this is about Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) rather than Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) like you see in eastern New Mexico and west Texas. The article is incorrect about VAWTs being a new idea - Sandia developed the idea in the '70s and you can see one of our surplused prototypes out at Clines Corner. VAWTs have three advantages - they are agnostic with respect to wind direction, the machinery is less complex as the turbine is at the bottom and there's no need for the machinery and complexity of the rotating head, and they can operate over a greater spread of windspeeds (HAWT are limited by the blade tip speed - if it exceeds the speed of sound they will break up). The reason HAWT have succeeded in the marketplace is that the blades can be lifted up into the best wind area - the Sandia egg-beater VAWTs are closer to the ground. The turbines in the article look like they beat that limitation by spinning around a tall mast.
If I understand the article correctly, the concept of fish schooling formation undoes one of the benefits of VAWT - being agnostic with respect to wind direction. Ray Parks rcpa...@sandia.gov Consilient Heuristician Voice: 505-844-4024 ATA Department Mobile: 505-238-9359 http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax: 505-844-9641 http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:505-951-6084 Roger Critchlow wrote: > Same power production as existing wind farms in 100th the land area. > > http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1124/1 > > -- rec -- > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
