INTEL REPORT

Bladeless Wind Turbine

The Guardian:
A new bladeless wind turbine that promises to be more
efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer for birdlife than
conventional turbines has been welcomed by two of the UK
wind energy industrys most vocal critics.
The streamlined design contains no contacting moving parts,
making it virtually noiseless and less prone to vibration. Vortex
Bladeless, the turbines Spanish developers, hopes these
advantages could finally help usher in a viable consumer wind
power market.
Wind turbines now are too noisy for peoples backyard, says
David Suriol, who co-founded the company with Raul Martin
and the turbines inventor, David Yez. We want to bring
wind power generation to peoples houses like solar power.
Using the scientific principles of natural frequency and
vorticity, the turbine oscillates in swirling air caused by the
wind bypassing the mast, and then builds exponentially as it
reaches the structures natural resonance. Its a powerful
effect that famously caused the collapse of the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge in 1940, footage of which inspired Yez to try
to build a structure to harness this energy rather than prevent
it.
The best wind turbine will collect around 50% of energy from
the wind, says Suriol. We are close to 40% with bladeless
turbines in our wind tunnel laboratory.
The turbine floats on magnets, which as well as significantly
amplifying the oscillation, also eliminates any friction and the
need for expensive lubricating oils or mechanical parts. So
even if newer conventional turbines are promising greater and
greater power generation, Vortex Bladeless claims that the

efficiency of their design will always make it cheaper at

whatever scale.
We are using less parts so manufacturing costs will be 53%
less, and the operational costs including maintenance, land
rental and administration will be 51% cheaper, predicts
Suriol for a planned 150-metre tall, one-megawatt bladeless
turbine, compared to current onshore windfarms most
common three-bladed turbines. We estimate that it will be
40% less expensive than conventional wind turbines per
megawatt of generation.
This industrial-sized turbine is at least four years away from
reality, Suriol confesses, but within 18 months he hopes to sell
a three-metre-high version, generating 100W, paired with a
125W solar panel and small battery. This, he says, could be
offered as a really cheap system for people living off-grid in
Africa and India, supplying enough electricity for three lights, a
TV and a refrigerator.
A 13-metre, 4kW turbine for domestic use is planned within a
similar timeframe, which would fall foul of current residential
planning permission rules in England that stipulate freestanding turbines can be no higher than 11.1 metres high. Even
if these issues couldnt be surmounted, Suriol argues that the
13-metre turbines could be used en masse as viable
alternatives to current windfarms.
You can put four, five or six 4kW turbines in the space of one
conventional turbine, which need 5 metre diameter space
around them, he says. In fact, wind tunnel tests have shown
they perform even better placed closer together as they
benefit from the vortices each of them creates.