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.
