Rita-proof ?
Vertical axis turbines are artistic, in a techie way Claim is - to survive hurricanes. http://www.windside.com/products.html It will be an incredible marketing tool if someone can film one of them surviving Rita - might even make the evening news.
Re: Rita-proof ?
Jones Ses: Vertical axis turbines are artistic, in a techie way Claim is - to survive hurricanes. http://www.windside.com/products.html It will be an incredible marketing tool if someone can film one of them surviving Rita - might even make the evening news. I've often wondered about the comparative efficiency of multi - directional wind turbines versus traditional windmill devices. I've always been under the impression that prototypes that take better advantage of multi-directional winds must unfortunately sacrifice a certain amount of (fixed wind) efficiency of which traditional single directional windmills do not have to contend with. However this doesn't appear so, much to my surprise. The Windside website claims to produce ...50 % more electricity a year than traditional propellers with the same swept area. They also claim All Windside turbines have been made to withstand storms, frost, ice, heat and humidity. They can charge at very low speeds, the larger models claiming to be able to charge from wind speeds as low as 1 meter per second. Most astonishing to me they claim The Windside turbine works also in storms, tested in 60 m/s, which is unbearable speed to others. Both these facts are world records. They appear to be scalable with larger theoretical models approaching 200 meters tall, 70 meters wide. It is claimed that such a scaled up model is capable of generating several megawatts of power. The fact that they make the claim of being able to generate 50% more electricity than traditional models would at first glace suggest a huge, an absolutely HUGE advantage, over traditional propeller wind mill models. You would think investors in wind energy would be flocking to their doors with fistfuls of cash in their sweaty little hands. A side comment: I also can't see environmentalists complaining about the overall configuration of these windmills. A bird that crashes into one of these devices would deserve to be taken out of the gene pool! I wonder what I'm missing in this seemingly glowing review. Lack of awareness? Ignorance and politics, as usual? PS: There is only one disadvantage that I can see, and it's a purely personal and aesthetic one. I don't think they are as sexy looking as the traditional propeller driven windmills. Maybe they can be spruced up with bright colors! But, hey, for a 50% increase in electrical generating inefficiency - aesthetics can go out the door! Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
Re: Rita-proof ?
Jed Rothwell wrote: Jones Beene wrote: Vertical axis turbines are artistic, in a techie way Claim is - to survive hurricanes. Conventional large-scale wind turbines easily survive hurricanes. The propellers are automatically feathered in high winds. In normal operations, the propeller and shaft routinely survive 1.5 MW of torque, which is way more than any hurricane would produce when pushing against feathered props and the tower. Small wind turbines might be a problem. I would not know. A 1.5 MW vertical axis turbine would be awkward, I suppose. It would not sweep high into the sky way above the top of the tower, the way a conventional three blade design does. You would have to make the tower taller to reach the same height, and the tower is the most expensive component. The higher you go the better the turbine works. - Jed I know of one firm that's installing vertical axis current mills on coral reefs. The water flows over the reef at high tide and then flows out through a gap as the tide drops. The mill pumps sea water up to a header tank on land and it flows out via a turbine. The water based forces on the turbine are far greater than any wind stress. The current mill designers have to think about shark strike rather than bird strike.
Re: Rita
Thanks for the inside info. Rita is now the third strongest hurricane ever recorded with an enormous 70 mile wide eye. It does seem like forcasters are starting to shift the track towards Galveston/Houston within 48 hours. Look at the satelite pics, the storm has already started recurving northward. If Rita really socks Texas City and Houston where 25% of our gasoline is refined, then gasoline will go haywire. - Original Message - From: RC Macaulay To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 8:41 PM Subject: Re: Rita Houston corporate limits allow the city to claim they are the 4th largest city in the USA. The "metro" area is ranked down as shown by Jone' chart. Two of our companies are located in the NASA Clear Lake area on Galvaston Bay. WE closed them down and evacuated at noon.I live100 miles NW toward Austin. Two of our family are still inside the beltway and expected to arrive here near midnight tonight. There is NO bottled water or ice anywhere in the region at present. Long lines at the remaining gas stations that have fuel. There is an estimated 2 and 1/2 million people moving out of the Houston-Galveston zone at the present time. Adding to the storm surge problem, severe land subsidence caused by ground water pumping . Some area have subsided as much as 14 ft over 50 year period of time andthis pose a real threat to the Nasa area. Of greatet concern is the projected location the storm will pass over the coast ( just south of Galveston). The potential for storm surge and tornados are greatest on the northeast quadrant of the eye. I have been through hurricanes on the coast for 78 years. The bad one in my lifetime was in 1943. 143 mph at the Ellington Field weather station. Folks ! The Houston-Galveston areacannot take the full brunt of a storm like Rita. The fallout would make Katrina pale in comparison. Should the storm sustain its fury, look for major gasoline shortages. This does NOT include the double whammy to the offshore oil and gas production. Katrina did some damage BUT Rita is passing right through the chain of offshore platforms at full fury. Any major disruption to the gas pipeline network will play havoc with winter gas supplies because so much of the nation's natural gas supply is now produced offshore in the gulf of Mexico. Even 100 miles inland we are anticipating wind gust over 100 mph plus tornados. Fortunately, our state has one of the best response programs ever as demonstrated by the Katrina organized response. Richard
