What is Digg?78 Comments
- inactive, on 05/15/2008, -1/+41Very cool, but I still think this is a better idea.......http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid12 ...
- sjbdallas, on 05/15/2008, -0/+24that's a solid bar of some kind that the rotors are attached to right? When I first looked at it, I thought it was a flexible wire and worried that those rotors would be spinning towards the ground at some point chopping the heads of polar bears or something.
- inactive, on 05/15/2008, -2/+23What we need is more maverick physicists like this guy, people that break the mold and do something really awesome
- rlray216, on 05/15/2008, -0/+21These pictures alone are awe-inspiring.
- mrbambastik, on 05/15/2008, -3/+21The article points out twice that he "has little training... did not graduate from college..." to have readers fall in love with the underdog feel of the story rather than consider cold hard facts.
Would you rather pull a wagon with 1 horse or 100 chicken? Which one do you think is easier to maintain?
With 25 rotors there are 25 more odds one breaks down. 25 times more downtime. Large rotors orient themselves to face the wind's direction. It is not possible with this design where the direction of the shaft is set. Also the pitch on big rotors changes according to wind force. The pitch and spacing on his design is set and cannot be optimal for all wind conditions.
Also I the statement that it uses less material is untrue. Large blades benefit from the momentum of wind force applied far from the center of rotation, just like a ceiling fan spins slowly and moves a lot of air vs. your computer fan which spins like a gerbil's wheel. It takes more material to make 25 small fans than 1 3kw blade. 3kw is tiny, you only need a 6 foot span for that. Most single-rotors make in the order of megawatts.
So look past emotions conveyed by "the underdog" story, diggers. He may have created something new but in no way better. - Rikkochet, on 05/15/2008, -1/+15This is why inventors will always trump engineers. They can see past processes and create something totally out of the mold.
/engineer - serif69, on 05/15/2008, -0/+12That is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
- Rikkochet, on 05/15/2008, -0/+123kW? Those are a couple of big ***** light bulbs.
- vulapine, on 05/15/2008, -1/+14Instead of thwacking birds from the sky it will be slicing them to ribbons.
- uptwolait, on 05/15/2008, -1/+10A balloon? One rogue teen, one six pack of cheap beer, one pellet rifle = $2M into the ground.
- ChileanGoD, on 05/15/2008, -0/+9Until the wind suddenly changes direction and chops someones head off.
- mfc5200, on 05/15/2008, -1/+9Anyone here ever study airfoils? There is a reason they don't design turbines like this, they are inefficient. Go look at gliders, their wings are designed to be thin and long for a reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28wing% ...
It is for the same reason, birds such as vultures, condors, and other "efficient" flyers have high aspect ratios, because they are meant to stay in the air all day just flying with the wind currents. On the other hand, small birds like hummingbirds sacrifice this efficiency for maneuverability, much is the same way fighter jets do. - edwartica, on 05/15/2008, -0/+6Its all fun and games till someone looses an eye. Then its just a game, find the eye.
- halleyscomet, on 05/15/2008, -0/+53kW = 3,000 Watts. Most light bulbs used in the home are only 60 Watt.
This turbine could easily meet all the lighting needs of the average single family home. You'd only be able to run one or two major appliances at a time though, as some of them can draw 1,500 Watts easily. Still, this would significantly reduce the energy footprint of a home, allowing most of its energy needs to come from the turbine. You'd still need to be on grid, but if you're using energy star complaint appliances you won't be drawing much power. You'll draw none of you stagger your use of major appliances.
Not bad for an early version of the technology. - longbow486, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5Word, for writin' letters n' ***** yo
- Modestexcuse, on 05/15/2008, -3/+7"Selsam, who attended college at UC-Irvine but didn’t graduate, has very little formal training in the ways of physics or wind power, which is probably what left him prepared to break the mold".
I've seen this time and time again. Refreshing... - discoloda, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4that is pretty cool, but i wonder how much energy you can get from it. so far it has the design goal of being cheap.
- whatsrequired, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4Hopefully I'll have this technology in MY home!
- wendelgee2, on 05/15/2008, -1/+5wouldn't the big (slow) turbines be safer for birds and flying future babies?
this thing looks like an open air cuisinart. - inactive, on 05/15/2008, -1/+4Really, really sweet concept.
- kinerry, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4imagine all the death from birds flying by....awesome
- dthumphreys, on 05/15/2008, -1/+7Very Cool - Hopefully my grandkids will have some of this technology in their homes.
- spamagnet, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4Most "inventors" ARE engineers.
- itzac, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2Actually, as the belt gets longer, it vibrates at slower wind speeds. You could put, say, 4ft bows under a brigde, stacked a few high. And they output DC, so scaling is a question of connecting them in series for higher voltage or parallel for more current. Much easier than scaling AC generation.
- sonaboy, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2let's go, wind power!!
- ojuice, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2My god this analogy has gone horribly wrong.
- vernsan, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2Would this work if you put this under or over a bridge?
- inactive, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2Beautiful!
- greyexplosion, on 05/15/2008, -3/+5Wow.
- mesarah, on 05/15/2008, -1/+3hmmm
- edwartica, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2But how many of those birds would just be killed off if we didn't keep our cats indoors? :P
- LLLSecretChimp, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2You must be expecting your grandkids to have really drafty houses.
- wrathbone, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2. . .
- aetherboy, on 05/15/2008, -1/+4Thats a good concern, how about some others...
-How much more space does this design take up compared to conventional turbines? Obviously it needs to allow for more spacing between them due to horizontal motion to make sure they don't hit each other in turbulent winds.
-How in the hell do you repair something like this? Doesn't look like the easiest thing in the world to stop for maintenance work...
-If there is indeed a risk of it hitting people on the ground (or hitting the ground in general), what sorts of precautions would need to be taken to make it safe? Foam-covered blades aint going to cut it...
-With larger turbines, I feel a bit safer about how firmly they are anchored. With this thing, i'd be concerned that in a strong enough storm it would uproot and go flying off and cause unknown damage.
-With larger standard designs, its easier (somewhat) for birds to avoid. How in the hell does a bird avoid this thing? Wouldn't the smaller rotors be harder to see?
This is interesting in all and its great he figured out one of the bigger engineering challenges but I wish there was more thought given to the practicality challenges and how to overcome those. - etx313, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3I cannot imagine these things could be installed too closely together. But still very cool none the less.
- mightyslick, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2One a large scale the vibrations would be hard to handle. The wind would have to be very constant . Look to scale how much air is going over that little thing. The fan is putting out a lot of air to accomplish the level of vibration seen in the video.
- cobbs, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2Stand underneath it and get showered with bird shrapnel.
- bbendele, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-05/ten- ...
- cowsgonemadd3, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3What?
- diggydougie, on 05/15/2008, -1/+3If your horse dies then you're stuck. If some chickens die you still continue. Get more chickens later, they're cheap.
- nezroy, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3I know you're probably just trying to be funny, but it's not like alternative energy isn't already facing an uphill battle as it is. Even unintentionally propagating this wind-power myth is unhelpful.
In the US, power lines, communications towers, tall buildings, collisions with vehicles, pesticides, and other various man-made sources conservatively kill about 400 million birds a year. Bird kill via collision with urban structures and windows is hard to measure but may well be in the billions.
Comparatively, if the entire US powergrid was supplied solely by wind power using existing wind turbines and their studied bird kill rates, you would be talking about maybe 30 million bird deaths/year from wind turbines. While not insignificant, it would be fourth or fifth down the list of man-made bird killers in the US. Power-lines alone contribute about 130 million to the 400 million mentioned above.
Nevermind that in 2001 the estimated bird kill for wind turbines in the US was a grand total of... 6400. - uptwolait, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3Beavers are sometimes killed by the falling tree they cut down. You can't stop every natural tragedy.
- sindrit, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3I like how the article manages to avoid mentioning weather his new design actually produces more power than traditional designs.
- xptoast, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1However not usually the other way around. Textbook engineers ruin it.
- xptoast, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1Dugg for saying that it was awesome and not complaining like a whiner.
- bbendele, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1.
- xptoast, on 05/15/2008, -0/+2Fix for the bird thing:
Don't fly near the wizzing noise that is created by insanely fast spinning blades that will surely cause your death. Nature always gets in trouble somehow. You can't save everything. Beavers build dams and flood things a bit. That kills off stuff. Why don't we kill the beavers? It's all a part of nature. Don't freak out so much. - bstory, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1perfect
- xptoast, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1They usually get shot down pretty quick if your idea isn't a textbook kind.
- diggydougie, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Of course you will. That's only 1% power loss.
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