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Wind turbine vertical turbine. Vertical wind turbines. Types of wind turbines. New designs and technical solutions

To drive the wind generator, a rotary-type turbine with a vertical axis of rotation was made. This type of rotor is very strong and durable, has a relatively low rotational speed and can be easily made at home, without the aerodynamic wing profile and other problems associated with the manufacture of a propeller for a horizontal axis of rotation wind turbine. Moreover, such a turbine operates almost silently and regardless of where the wind blows. The work is practically independent of turbulence and frequent changes in the strength and direction of the wind. The turbine is characterized by high starting torques, operation at relatively low speeds. The efficiency of this turbine is small, but this is enough to power devices of low power, everything pays off with the simplicity and reliability of the design.

Electric generator

A modified compact car starter based on permanent magnets. Generator output: alternating current with a power of 1.0 ... 6.5 W (depending on wind speed).
The option of converting a starter into a generator is described in the article:

Wind turbine manufacturing

This wind turbine costs next to nothing and is easy to manufacture.
The design of the turbine consists of two or more semi-cylinders mounted on a vertical shaft. The rotor rotates due to the different resistance to the wind of each of the blades turned to the wind with different curvature. The efficiency of the rotor is somewhat improved by the central gap between the blades, since some air additionally acts on the second blade as it exits the first.

The generator is fixed on the stand behind the output shaft, through which the wire with the received current exits. This design eliminates the sliding contact for current pickup. The turbine rotor is mounted on the generator housing and fixed to the free ends of the mounting studs.

A disk with a diameter of 280 ... 330 mm or a square plate inscribed in this diameter is cut out of an aluminum sheet 1.5 mm thick.

Five holes are marked and drilled relative to the center of the disk (one in the center and 4 at the corners of the plate) for installing the blades and two holes (symmetrical to the central one) for fixing the turbine to the generator.

In the holes located at the corners of the plate, small corners made of aluminum, 1.0 ... 1.5 mm thick, are installed to secure the blades.

The turbine blades will be made from a can with a diameter of 160 mm and a height of 160 mm. The can is cut in half along the axis, resulting in two identical blades. The edges of the can after the cut, at a width of 3 ... 5 mm, are bent 180 degrees and crimped to strengthen the edge and eliminate sharp cutting edges.

Both blades of the turbine, from the side of the open part of the can, are interconnected by a U-shaped jumper with a hole in the middle. The jumper forms a gap 32 mm wide between the central part of the blades to improve the efficiency of the rotor.

On the opposite side of the can (near the bottom), the blades are interconnected by a bridge of minimum length. In this case, a gap of 32 mm wide is maintained along the entire length of the blade.

The assembled block of blades is installed and attached to the disk at three points - behind the central opening of the jumper and the previously installed aluminum corners. The turbine blades are fixed on the plate strictly one against the other.

To connect all the parts, you can use rivets, self-tapping screws, an M3 or M4 screw connection, corners, or use other methods.

A generator is installed in the holes on the other side of the disk and fixed with nuts on the free ends of the mounting studs.

For reliable self-starting of the wind generator, it is necessary to add a second similar tier of blades to the turbine. In this case, the blades of the second tier are displaced along the axis relative to the blades of the first tier by an angle of 90 degrees. The result is a four-bladed rotor. This ensures that there is always at least one blade that is able to catch the wind and give the turbine a boost to spin.

To reduce the size of the wind generator, a second layer of turbine blades can be made and fixed around the generator. We will make two blades 100 mm wide (generator height), 240 mm long (similar to the length of the blade of the first tier) from an aluminum sheet 1.0 mm thick. We bend the blades along a radius of 80 mm, similarly to the blades of the first tier.

Each blade of the second (lower) tier is fixed with two corners.
One is installed in a free hole on the periphery of the disk, similar to the fastening of the blades of the upper tier, but with a shift at an angle of 90 degrees. The second corner is fixed to the stud of the installed generator. In the photo, for clarity of fastening the blades of the lower tier, the generator is removed.

Steady attrition natural resources leads to the fact that Lately humanity is busy searching for alternative energy sources. To date, enough is known a large number of types of alternative energy, one of which is the use of wind power.

Wind energy has been used by people since antiquity, for example, in the operation of windmills. The very first wind generator (wind turbine), which served to produce electricity, was built in Denmark in 1890. Such devices began to be used in cases where it was necessary to provide electricity to any hard-to-reach area.

The principle of operation of the wind generator:

The wind rotates a wheel with blades, which transmits torque to the generator shaft through a gearbox.
The inverter performs the task of converting the received direct electric current into alternating current.
The battery is designed to supply voltage to the network in the absence of wind.

The power of the wind turbine is directly dependent on the diameter of the wind wheel, the height of the mast and the strength of the wind. At present, wind turbines are produced, the blade diameter of which is from 0.75 to 60 m and more. The smallest of all modern wind turbines is the G-60. The diameter of the rotor, which has five blades, is only 0.75 m; at a wind speed of 3-10 m / s, it can generate a power of 60 W, and its weight is 9 kg. Such an installation is successfully used for lighting, battery charging and communications.

All wind generators can be classified according to several principles:

Axes of rotation.
The number of blades.
The material from which the blades are made.
Screw pitch.

Rotation Axis Classification:

Horizontal.
Vertical.

The most popular are horizontal wind turbines, the axis of rotation of which is parallel to the ground. This type is called the "windmill", the blades of which rotate against the wind. The design of horizontal wind generators provides for automatic rotation of the head (in search of wind), as well as rotation of the blades, to use the wind of low strength.

Vertical wind turbines are much less efficient. The blades of such a turbine rotate parallel to the surface of the earth in any direction and strength of the wind. Since, in any direction of the wind, half of the blades of the wind wheel always rotate against it, the windmill loses half of its power, which significantly reduces the energy efficiency of the installation. However, this type of wind turbine is easier to install and maintain, since its gearbox and generator are placed on the ground. The disadvantages of a vertical generator are: expensive installation, significant operating costs, and the fact that a lot of space is required to install such a wind turbine.

Horizontal type wind turbines are more suitable for industrial-scale electricity production, they are used in the case of creating a wind farm system. Vertical is often used for the needs of small private households.

Classification by the number of blades:

Two-bladed.
Three-bladed.
Multi-bladed (50 or more blades).

According to the number of blades, all installations are divided into two- and three- and multi-blade (50 or more blades). To generate the required amount of electricity, it is not the fact of rotation that is required, but the output to required amount revolutions.

Each blade (optional) increases the overall resistance of the wind wheel, making it more difficult to reach the generator's operating speed. Thus, multi-bladed installations do start to rotate at lower wind speeds, but they are used when the very fact of rotation matters, as, for example, when pumping water. Wind turbines with a large number of blades are practically not used to generate electricity. In addition, it is not recommended to install a gearbox on them, because this complicates the design and also makes it less reliable.

Blade material classification:

Wind generators with rigid blades.
Sailing wind generators.

It should be noted that sail blades are much easier to manufacture and therefore less expensive than rigid metal or fiberglass ones. However, these savings can come with unexpected costs. If the diameter of the wind wheel is 3 m, then at a generator speed of 400-600 rpm, the tip of the blade reaches a speed of 500 km/h. Given the fact that the air contains sand and dust, this fact is a serious test even for rigid blades, which, under stable operation, require annual replacement of the anti-corrosion film applied to the ends of the blades. If the anti-corrosion film is not updated, then the rigid blade will gradually begin to lose its performance.

Sailing-type blades require replacement not once a year, but immediately after the first serious wind occurs. Therefore, autonomous power supply, which requires significant reliability of the system components, does not consider the use of sail-type blades.

Pitch classification:

Fixed screw pitch.
Variable screw pitch.

Of course, the variable pitch of the propeller increases the range of effective operating speeds of the wind generator. However, the introduction of this mechanism leads to a complication of the blade design, to an increase in the weight of the wind wheel, and also reduces the overall reliability of the wind turbine. The consequence of this is the need to strengthen the structure, which leads to a significant increase in the cost of the system, not only during acquisition, but also during operation.

Modern wind turbines are high-tech products with power ranging from 100 to 6 MW. Wind turbines of innovative designs allow cost-effective use of the energy of the weakest wind - from 2 m/s. With the help of wind turbines today it is possible to successfully solve the problems of power supply to island or local facilities of any capacity.

Developed countries have long relied on renewable energy sources, including wind energy. As a result, the total capacity of all nuclear power plants operating in the world is a little over 400 thousand MW, and the total capacity of wind farms has exceeded 500 thousand MW! However, in countries where attention is paid to wind energy there is neither Gazprom nor RAO UES. As well as planting on an oil needle ... But let's not talk about painful things.

So, in countries free from the omnipotence of monopolies and the clan system, propeller-type wind turbines with a horizontal axis of rotation prevail. Such generators require powerful supporting towers with expensive foundations, which increases the payback period. In addition, such units are powerful low-frequency sources of noise. The propeller "windmill" rotates at a speed of only 15-30 revolutions per minute, and after the gearbox, the revolutions increase to 1500, as a result, the generator shaft rotates at the same speed, which generates electricity. This classic scheme has significant drawbacks: the gearbox is a complex and expensive mechanism (up to 20% of the cost of the entire wind generator), requires seasonal replacement and wears out very quickly (see).

Relevance of wind turbine development

These circumstances limit the circle of buyers and make them look for an alternative to traditional wind power generators. Vertical axis wind turbines have become a modern trend. They are silent and do not require large capital expenditures, are easier and cheaper to maintain than horizontal-axial turbines. Wind generators with a horizontal axis are transferred to the protective mode (autorotation) at the limiting wind speed, the excess of which is fraught with the destruction of the structure. In this mode, the propeller is disconnected from the multiplier and the generator, no electricity is generated. And rotors with a vertical axis experience significantly less mechanical stresses at equal wind speeds than rotors with a horizontal axis. In addition, the latter require expensive wind direction systems.

Until very recently, it was believed that for a VAWT it was impossible to obtain a speed factor (the ratio of the maximum linear speed of the blades to the wind speed) greater than one. This overly broad premise, true only for certain types of rotors, led to false conclusions that the marginal wind energy utilization factor of vertical-axis wind turbines is lower than that of horizontal-axis propeller ones, which is why this type of wind turbine is almost 40 years old. not developed at all. And only in the 60s-70s, first by Canadian, and then by American and British experts, it was experimentally proved that these conclusions are not applicable to Darrieus rotors using the lift force of the blades. For these rotors, the specified maximum ratio of the linear speed of the working bodies to the wind speed reaches 6:1 and higher, and the wind energy utilization factor is not lower than that of the horizontal-axial (propeller type). An important role is also played by the fact that the volume of theoretical studies of the aerodynamics of vertical-axial rotors and the experience in the development and operation of wind turbines based on them is much less than for horizontal-axial rotors.

A vertical-axis wind turbine (international designation VAWT) has been created, which is different from the rest, the coefficient of wind energy utilization of which is not inferior to the world's best wind turbines with a horizontal axis of rotation. The innovative multifaceted approach to the design of vertical wind turbines is based, among other things, on the use of a low-lying, durable rotor, on the periphery of which a plurality of wing-sails are fixed.

The rotor is equipped with support legs of the wheel chassis, which allows it to rotate around a fixed axis with a stable pore on the foundation due to the wheels of the chassis. Many sails-wings create a large torque due to aerodynamic forces. What makes this design record-breaking in terms of power density. The rotor diameter can be 10 meters. At the same time, on such a rotor it is possible to install wings with an area of more than 200 square meters, which will generate up to one hundred kilowatts of electricity.

Dimensions and weight of units

At the same time, the weight of such units is so small that it is possible to install it on the roofs of buildings and provide them with autonomous power supply due to this. Or it is possible to provide electricity to an object in the mountains where there is no power line. An increase in power to an arbitrarily large value is achievable by replicating such units. That is, putting a lot of similar installations, we achieve the desired power.

Technical efficiency

As for technical efficiency. Our prototype with a blade height of 800 mm and a transverse dimension of 800 mm at a wind speed of 11 m/s developed a mechanical power of 225 W (at 75 rpm). At the same time, he defended from the surface of the earth at a height of less than a meter. According to the resource http://www.rktp-trade.ru, comparable power (300 W) is developed by a five-bladed vertical windmill mounted on a six-meter mast, and it has five 1200 mm blades mounted on an overall diameter of 2,000 mm. That is, if we take the areas of the compared windmills swept by the wind equal, then it turns out that the prototype is 2.5 ...

Based on this, knowing that the described analogue has a wind energy utilization factor (KIEV) equal to 0.2, it is possible to estimate the KIEV of the prototype as 0.48, which is much higher than that of Savonius and Daria VAWTs and corresponds to the best world samples of horizontal-axial wind turbines. At the same time, the material consumption and cost of the prototype is much lower than that of propeller mast windmills with wind-orientation mechanisms and a high-mounted nacelle with an expensive planetary-type step-up gearbox.

Comparative evaluation of the efficiency of wind turbine rotors various types - Table 1.


Rotor type	Location of the axis of rotation	Wind Energy Utilization Factor (KIEV)	A source	note ania
Savonius rotor	vertical	0,17		Developed about eighty years ago, scheme - fig. 7 (e) on page 17 of the mentioned source
Wide-spaced N-Darié rotor	vertical	0,38	TR.A. Janson. Wind turbines. Edited by M.Zh. Osipov. M.: Publishing house of MSTU im. N.E. Bauman, 2007, p.23, fig.13	Developed about a century ago, scheme - fig. 7 (a) on page 17 of the referenced source
Multi-blade resistances	vertical	0,2	In the same place, as well as a specific commercial product on the website http://www.rktp-trade.ru	The Bolotov rotor also belongs to this type.
Two-bladed propeller	Horizontal	0,42	R.A. Janson. Wind turbines. Edited by M.Zh. Osipov. M.: Publishing house of MSTU im. N.E. Bauman, 2007, p.23, fig.13	The most common type of wind turbine in the world today
The rotor of our turbine (formally N-Darrie, but with tightly closed blades, on which inclined anti-wings and a horizontal impeller are installed)	vertical	0,48…0,5	Field measurements of wind speed with an anemometer, rotor torque with a dynamometer, rotor speed with a tachometer

Advantages of VAWT Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

The device rotates in the same direction in any direction of the wind. While the gondolas of horizontal wind turbines need to be oriented in the wind, which increases the cost of the design and reduces the life of the moving parts of the turning mechanism.
Electricity generation in VAWT starts at wind speeds of 5 m/s.
The turbine has a high aerodynamic quality of the blades and an innovative architecture that makes it possible to achieve a wind energy utilization factor of at least 47%.
The turbine does not require maintenance of the generator (annular flat linear without brushes and bearings).
Capacity increase is achieved by installing additional modules.
VAWT has no restrictions when installed near housing, does not create unacceptable electromagnetic and acoustic radiation. This makes it possible to install turbines within settlements, including on the roofs of multi-storey buildings, without compromising landscape views.
VAWT is absolutely harmless, it can be installed on the migration paths of migratory birds.
The turbine is resistant to strong winds, able to withstand even hurricane winds. This is achieved by a mechanism for automatically changing the angles of attack of the vertical blades of the turbine (the figures are given above).
VAWT has lightweight and simple components that are easy to transport and install.
The turbine is protected from lightning.

To date, a full-size 3-d model of the mechanical part of the turbine (with a vertical blade height of 8 m) has been completed, as well as working drawings of parts and assemblies of the rotor and its rotation unit. Drawings for the electric generator and blades are worked out taking into account the maximum compliance with the "price - quality" criterion.

The project involves the design, manufacture and testing of a full-size VAWT sample (height of vertical blades 8m). After that, it is planned to organize industrial production such installations after debugging a pilot sample, with equipping such installations with non-electrified areas in rural areas and buildings in cities.

The areas of application of the innovative wind generator are, in principle, the same as those of analogues. That is, it is the generation of electricity in places where there are no stationary sources of it, as well as where the use of other methods of generating electricity is economically unprofitable. In particular, these are special purpose objects that require autonomous power supply, for example, lighthouses and radio beacons, border outposts and border posts, automated meteorological and air navigation posts.

Wind power is actively developing all over the world, and it has long been no secret to anyone that this is one of the most promising areas of alternative energy in the world. this moment. By mid-2014, the total capacity of all installed wind turbines in the world was 336 gigawatts, and the largest and most powerful vertical three-bladed wind turbine Vestas-164 was installed and launched in early 2014 in Denmark. Its power reaches 8 megawatts, and the span of the blades is 164 meters.

Despite the long-running technology for manufacturing bladed turbines and windmills in general, many enthusiasts are striving to improve the technology, increase its efficiency and reduce negative factors.

As is known, the wind flow energy utilization factor y reaches 30% at best, they are quite noisy and disrupt the natural heat balance of nearby areas, raising the temperature of the surface air layer at night. They are also very dangerous for birds and occupy large areas.

What alternatives exist? In fact, the creativity of modern inventors knows no bounds, and many different alternatives have been invented.

Let's take a look at 5 of the industry's most unusual wind turbine alternative designs.

Since 2010, the American company Altaeros Energies, based at the Massachusetts Research Institute, has been developing a new generation of wind turbines. A new type of wind turbine is designed to operate at altitudes up to 600 meters, where conventional wind turbines simply cannot reach. It is at such high altitudes that the strongest winds constantly blow, which are 5-8 times stronger than winds near the surface of the earth.

The generator is an inflatable structure, similar to a helium-filled airship, in which a three-blade turbine is installed on a horizontal axis. Such a wind generator was launched in 2014 in Alaska to a height of about 300 meters for testing for 18 months.

The developers claim that this technology will provide electricity at a cost of 18 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is half the usual cost of wind power in Alaska. In the future, such generators may well replace diesel power plants, as well as find application in problem areas.

In the future, this device will be not just a generator of electricity, but also part of a weather station and a convenient means of providing the Internet in areas far from the corresponding infrastructure.

After installation, such a system does not require the presence of personnel, does not occupy a large area, and is almost silent. It can be controlled remotely, and requires Maintenance only once every 1-1.5 years.

Another interesting solution to create an unusual wind farm design is being implemented in the United Arab Emirates. Not far from Abu Dhabi, the city of Madsar is being built, in which they plan to build a rather unusual wind farm, called the Windstalk developers.

Founder of New York based design company Atelier DNA this project, said that the main idea was to find a kinetic model in nature that could serve to generate electricity, and such a model was found. 1,203 carbon fiber stalks, each about 55 meters high, with concrete bases 20 meters wide, will be installed 10 meters apart.

The stems will be reinforced with rubber, and have a width of about 30 cm at the base, and taper up to 5 centimeters. Each such stem will contain alternating layers of electrodes and ceramic discs made from a piezoelectric material that generates electricity when subjected to pressure.

As the stems sway in the wind, the disks will compress, generating an electrical current. No wind turbine noise, no bird casualties, nothing but the wind.

The idea arose from observing reeds swaying in a swamp.

Atelier DNA's Windstalk project won second place in the Madsar-sponsored Land Art Generator competition to select the best work of art from international submissions that can generate energy from renewable sources.

The area occupied by this unusual wind farm will cover 2.6 hectares, and in terms of power it will correspond to a conventional wind turbine occupying a similar area. The system is efficient due to the absence of friction losses inherent in traditional mechanical systems.

At the base of each stalk will be a generator that converts torque from the stalk through a system of shock absorbers and cylinders, similar to the Levant Power system developed in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since the wind is not constant, an energy storage system will be applied so that the accumulated energy can be used even when there is no wind, the employees working on the project explain.

At the top of each stem, an LED lamp will be installed, the brightness of which will directly depend on the strength of the wind and the amount of electricity generated at the moment.

Windstalk will run on a chaotic wobble, which allows you to place the elements much closer together than is possible with conventional bladed wind turbines.

A similar Wavestalk project is being developed to convert the energy of ocean currents and waves, where a similar system would be upside down underwater.

The project, developed by Tunisian firm Saphon Energy, is like Windstalk a bladeless wind turbine, but this time the device has a sail-type design.

This silent generator, shaped like a satellite dish, was named Saphonian. It has no rotating parts and is completely safe for birds. The screen of the generator makes forward and backward movements under the influence of the wind, creating vibrations in the hydraulic system.

The goal of the project is to improve the performance of wind generators in relation to the use of the wind flow. The wind is literally harnessed to the sail, which makes forward and backward movements under its action, while there are no blades, no rotor, no gears. This interaction allows you to convert more kinetic energy into mechanical energy using pistons.

Energy can be stored in hydraulic accumulators, or converted into electricity by means of a generator, or it can be used to set some mechanism into rotation. If conventional wind turbines have an efficiency of 30%, then this sail-type generator gives all 80%. Its efficiency exceeds blade-type windmills by 2.3 times.

Due to the absence of expensive components, as is the case in a wind turbine (blades, hubs, gearboxes), in the case of Saphonian, equipment costs are reduced by up to 45%.

The aerodynamic shape of the Saphonian has the advantage that turbulent wind currents have little effect on the body of the sail, and the aerodynamic force is only increased. It is because of turbulence that wind turbines are not used in urban areas, and Saphonian can be used there too. In addition, harmful acoustic and vibrational factors are minimized. Saphon Energy received an award from KPMG for its efforts in innovation.

Another very revolutionary approach to the use of wind energy was implemented back in 2008 by an inventor - an enthusiast from California. Large wind turbines for small towns are the size of a 30-story building, and their blades reach the size of the wings of a Boeing 747.

These giant generators certainly produce a lot of energy, but the production, transportation and installation of such systems is complex and expensive. Despite this, the industry is growing by more than 40 percent every year. That's what Doug Selsum of California was thinking before setting out on his ambitious goal. He decided that it was quite possible to get more energy using fewer materials.

By installing a dozen or several dozen small rotors on one shaft connected to one generator, Doug finally achieved his goal. He connected one end of a long shaft to a generator, and launched the other end into the air. balloons with helium. The system worked as expected.

Doug had read in textbooks that a single-rotor turbine was enough to get the maximum, but Doug had doubts. He thought differently: the more rotors, the more wind energy is available for use.

If each rotor is positioned at the right angle, then each rotor will get its own wind, and this will increase the generation efficiency.

Of course, this complicates the physics, because now we had to make sure that each rotor catches its own flow, and not just the flow from the adjacent rotor. It was necessary to find out the optimal angle for the shaft in relation to the wind and the ideal distance between the rotors. And, in the end, the gain was obtained by using less material.

In 2003, the inventor received a $75,000 grant from the California Energy Commission to develop a 3,000-watt seven-rotor turbine. The challenge was successfully met and Doug Selsam has already sold over 20 of his 2000 watt twin rotor turbines to several homeowners. He built these devices in his suburban garage.

Doug's idea was one of the few ideas that actually has every chance of making big headway in the commercial world. Selsam says the two rotors are just the beginning. He will probably see his multi-rotor turbines a mile across the sky someday.

Archimedes, headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has come up with its own concept of unusual wind turbines that can be installed directly on the roofs of residential buildings.

According to the authors of the project, an efficient low-noise design can completely provide a small house with electricity, and a complex of such generators, working in conjunction with, is able to completely reduce the dependence of a large building on external sources of electricity. The new wind turbines are named Liam F1.

A small turbine, 1.5 meters in diameter and weighing about 100 kilograms, can be installed on any wall or roof of a residential building. Usually, the height of the terraced roofs is 10 meters, and the wind in the country is almost always Southwest. These conditions are sufficient to correctly place the turbine on the roof, and effectively use wind energy.

Two problems of conventional wind turbines are solved here: the noise of conventional bladed turbines and the high cost of installing bulky equipment. In conventional wind turbines, installation costs often do not pay off. The noise level of the Liam turbine is about 45dB, which is even quieter than the noise of rain (rain noise in the forest is 50dB).

Shaped like a snail shell, the turbine turns in the wind like a weather vane, capturing the air flow, reducing its speed, and changing direction. Company director Marinus Miremeta claims that the efficiency of the innovative turbine reaches 80% of the maximum efficiency theoretically available in wind energy. And this is already quite enough.

In the Netherlands, the average household consumes 3,300 kWh of electricity per year. According to the developers, half of this energy can be provided by one Liam F1 turbine with a wind speed of at least 4.5 m/s.

It is possible to place three such turbines at the vertices of a triangle on the roof of a house, then each of the turbines will be provided with wind and they will not interfere with each other, but, on the contrary, will help each other.

If we are talking about installation in a city where turbulent flows take place, the manufacturer suggests slightly raising the wind turbines installed on city roofs, attaching them to poles so that the walls of neighboring houses do not interfere with wind flows.

The estimated cost of the new turbine, together with the installation, is 3999 euros. Since the device is larger than one meter, a special license may be required for its use, therefore, in the most extreme case, mini-Liam turbines are also produced by the company, the diameter of which is 0.75 meters.

Manufacturers plan to use their turbines not only for power supply of residential and industrial buildings, but also for the power supply of ships.

As you can see, manufacturers of wind turbines have plenty of interesting alternatives.

Incredible! But soon it will happen. Alternative energy sources of the third generation will turn the whole world upside down. The start has already been made. Wind turbines are the electric power future of mankind.

Introduction

Despite the fact that alternative forms of energy, such as wind turbines, for example, still receive undeservedly little attention, they continue to develop intensively. Perhaps soon the powers that be will understand that insane mining does more harm than good, and natural types of energy will firmly enter our everyday life. This hope is closely related to the fact that a third generation wind turbine was announced some time ago.

What is a third generation wind generator

It is traditionally accepted that the first generation of devices that converted wind energy were ordinary ship sails and mill wings. A little over a century ago, with the development of aviation, a second-generation wind generator appeared - a mechanism based on the principles of wing aerodynamics.

It was a breakthrough of that time! Although, if taken as a whole, then second-generation windmills are low-power, because due to design features cannot work in strong winds. Therefore, in order to receive more electricity, it was necessary to increase in size, which entailed additional financial costs for the development, production, installation and operation. Naturally, it couldn't stay that way for long.

In the early 2000s, ready-made developers announced the appearance of a third-generation wind generator - a wind turbine. The design, principle of operation, installation, and most importantly, the power of the new device is fundamentally different from its predecessors.

Device

Simplicity. This is exactly the word that can be used to characterize the design of a wind turbine generator. Compared to bladed wind turbines, the wind turbine has a much smaller number of working units and much more fixed elements, which makes it more resistant to various static and dynamic loads.

Wind turbine device:

fairing, it can be internal and external;
fairing of the turbogenerator assembly;
gondola;
turbine;
generator;
dynamic fastener.

Of the additional systems, the wind generator is equipped with inverting, accumulation and control units. There are no systems for adjusting the blades and orienting to the wind, traditional for a bladed wind generator. The latter is replaced by a fairing, which also acts as a nozzle, catches the wind and increases its power. If we take into account that the energy of the wind flow is equal to its speed cubed V3, then due to the presence of a nozzle, this formula looks like this: V3x4 = Ex64. At the same time, due to its cylindrical design, the fairing has the ability to self-adjust to the direction of the wind.

Advantages

Any New Product or an invention should always stand out in a significant way from its predecessors, and necessarily for the better. All this can be said about the new wind generator with a turbo design. One of the main advantages of a wind turbine is its resistance to strong winds. Its design is designed in such a way that it will operate efficiently and safely outside the limits that are critical for conventional bladed windmills: from 25 m/s to 60 m/s. But this is not the only advantage that a wind turbine has, there are several of them:

Absence of infrasonic waves. Finally, scientists have managed to solve one of the important problems that wind turbines have. It is precisely because of the existence of such side effect APU (wind power plant) was criticized by opponents of alternative energy, infrasound adversely affects the living environment. But now, due to the absence of infrasonic waves, a turbine-type wind generator can be installed even in urban areas.

The absence of blades removes several tasks at once that faced the designers and manufacturers of the wind generator. First, significant expenditures of forces and funds for the operational control of bladed windmills are removed. Secondly, the blade of the wind wheel is the most difficult element of the wind generator to manufacture. The lion's share of the cost of a conventional wind turbine is the cost of manufacturing the blades. In addition, there are cases when, with strong gusts of wind, the blade broke, scattering fragments over hundreds of meters.
Easy assembly and installation. All complex structures or units are manufactured and assembled by the manufacturing plant, only the last stage of assembly and installation on the mast takes place on site. Plus, the lightness of structural elements makes it possible to use the most common lifting equipment when installing a wind generator.
Connection diagram. In contrast to the bladed APU, the turbine is connected via standard scheme. This fact is not affected in any way by the technical conditions put forward by the future owner of the wind turbine.
The long service life is due to the materials from which the wind generator and its individual parts are made. Taking into account the preventive work that is mandatory during the operation of a wind turbine, the service life of the device can be up to 50 years.

Geography of turbine APU operation

The most realistic and optimal place for installing a turbine wind generator will be the shore of a lake or sea. Near water bodies, such a wind generator will work practically all year round, because thanks to its nozzle device, it is very sensitive to light breezes and other slightest manifestations of wind with a speed of 2 m/s.

With the same success, VST will work within the city, where a conventional wind generator is unable to work for a number of well-known reasons:

Insecurity of bladed wind turbines.
The infrasound they emit.
The minimum wind speed for the operation of a bladed wind generator is 4 m/s.

An interesting fact that proves the advantage of WTU

One of the cornerstones on which the position of opponents of alternative energy is based is that wind farms interfere with the operation of location equipment. During operation, the wind generator interferes with the passage of radio waves. Given the size of individual wind farms, and they can range from several tens to hundreds of square kilometers, it is understandable why the governments of many countries have begun to block alternative energy projects at the state level - this is a direct threat to national security.

For this reason, a French company that manufactures components for wind turbines has taken on the difficult task in terms of execution - to make the wind turbines themselves invisible to radars, and not the space around the wind turbine. For this, the experience gained in the manufacture of Stealth aircraft will be used. New components are planned to be launched on the market in 2015.

But where is the fact that proves the advantage of the VST over the bladed wind turbine? And the fact is that wind turbines do not interfere with the operation of location equipment even without expensive Stealth technology.

Prospects for the development of alternative wind energy

The first attempts to start using a wind turbine on an industrial scale were made in the middle of the last century, but were unsuccessful. This was due to the fact that oil resources were relatively cheap, and the construction of wind farms was unprofitable costly. But literally 25 years later, the situation has changed radically.

Alternative energy sources began to develop intensified in the 70s of the last century, after the pace of mechanical engineering increased sharply in the world and countries faced an oil shortage, which led to the 1973 oil crisis. Then, for the first time, the non-traditional energy sector in some countries received state support and the wind turbine began to be used on an industrial scale. In the 80s, the world wind energy began to reach self-sufficiency, and today countries such as Denmark, Germany and Australia provide themselves by almost 30% from alternative energy sources, including wind farms.

Unfortunately, and perhaps, and fortunately, last year's trend in the oil market with an unstable oil price makes us seriously think that the times when cheap oil was good are in the past. Today, for many countries, the cheaper oil is, the more profitable it is to develop non-traditional energy, first of all, this applies to the CIS countries. Therefore, there are prerequisites for the development of wind energy. How it will be - we'll see.