Super Efficient Wind Machine
Windwing
Several of the eco and energy blogs have recently covered a miraculous new invention that claims to be the most efficient wind machine out there. The ¨Windwing¨is a simple design for a group of wings that rise and fall in the wind.
Looking like a mash up between a biplane and a farm pump, the Windwing bobs up and down in the breeze.
There is an established maximum efficiency for windmills of 59%. That means the maximum amount of energy you can get out of air moving past a body is less than 100%. This makes sense because if a windmill were capable of pulling 100% of the energy out of the air then all the air behind a windmill would be absolutely still. The maximum efficiency of a windmill was calculated by Albert Betz in 1926 and no one has disproved it.
Modern windmills reach a maximum efficiency of 35 - 39% (I don´t have a good source on the 39% so take it with a grain of salt).
35% efficiency is pretty good when you consider the maximum being 59%. Another way of looking at this is to say current designs are 60% of the way to the maximum possible efficiency, which is pretty darn good, remember really good solar cells are 25% efficient, with some 30% efficient cells just starting to get to market. Windmills by comparison are very good at what they do. NASA, Universities and Governments around the world have spent millions on researching windmill design, so I find it more than a little incredible that Windwing can come from out of nowhere and produce a more efficient design.
Here are a couple of the other hints that this is the alternative energy equivalent of ¨vaporware¨. First the windwing website, www.w2energycorp.com has no information on their design. Second they present no test data on their design. Third they have no photos of any sort of prototype, and fourth, when a company makes bold claims about a new technology they have the obligation to provide equally compelling proof. No proof is provided.
As always I am willing to “eat my hat“ if I am proven wrong, and in a way I hope W2 Energy can produce a wind machine that lives up to their hype.
Via Ecogeek
-jsbarrie
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
I am an ex Indian Airforce engineer and innovator having 20 yrs exp on the maintenance of the flying machines. I have acheived a technological breakthrough , accidently while experimenting on one of my innovative ideas. Based on the idea I have designed a vehicle which moves up straight to any height on the earth. It’s journey is very smooth speedy and it can carry great load\s or passengers up. Best of all it consumes NO FOSSIL FUEL. Instead it uses the abundant earth’s natural energy UNEXPLOITED so far. . This is the ultimate CLEAN GREEN hill transportation technology.
It has NO applicability for the surface transport
This vehicle is absolutely weathwerproof . wind ,rain or freezing temp has no effrect on this. . It is capable of transforming life on the mountains for the rich and the poor by moving the logistics or the passangers up at a fraction of the cost by the present methods SAVING THE HUGE AMOUNT OF CARBON FUEL world over while transporting goods up contributing immensly in checking the carbon emission atleast in the hills . For example it can lift a truckloaad of cement or foodgrains from the Indian Punjab plains to Himalayan heights, 7000 ft Shimla or any other location at the fraction of cost by the present transportation cost in 10 minutes flat.(my calculation) to the heights above 8000 feet without consuming a drop of fuel contributing immensly to protect the environment in the hills .
It can revolutionise the life on the mountains in many ways with the endless possibilities of tourism, coldstorage ,mining, timber and above all helping the vast hill population by providing the logistics at the negligible transportation costs. It can also make the settlement on the inaccisible peaks much easier and cheaper.
I have tested the scale several times and the each trial brings new possibilities like lifting the ores from the deep mines cutting the operations cost drastically.
I want to generate scientific community’s interrest in this revolutionary GREEN technology which can help the sizeable developed and underdeveloped hill population in many many ways
.TERI India has shown interest in this unique green tech breakthrough.
Why am I writing to you?
Project like yours, could be the most appropriate one to demonstrate this ULTIMATE GREEN technoloy.and help make the world a carbon free better living place.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
delam rathour,
You don’t need to use CAPS to SELL your IDEAS, that is, unless they are NONSENSE. Do you really expect people to hand you bags of money because you claim to have the ULTIMATE GREEN TECHNOLOGY? LAME