The Wind Turbine of the Future: Vortex Bladeless

Imagine we remove these blades. It will not kill birds. It will not make noise. It will use less material. Imagine we remove all mobile parts and the hundreds liter of oil it uses every year. It rarely needs maintenance. Imagine we move the generator from the top to the bottom of the column. It will reduce the required funding. Imagine we change the tower materials and we use common fiberglass. It will be lighter and more respectful of the environment.

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This is the presentation of the new wind turbine technology developed in Spain called Vortex Bladeless. According to the creators this will be a more efficient, cost-effective and environmental friendly way to produce energy. The turbine is cone shaped (the top is bigger than the bottom) and it starts violently fluctuate under the right wind conditions, producing electric energy. This kind of shape has been developed through CFD computation with the goal to guarantee the formation of vortexes along the length of the main column. When the frequency of the vortexes rotation is equal to the frequency of the structure’s fluctuation, it reaches a pick of energy generation through the absorption of the wind energy from the turbine itself.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this technology, dozens of wind tunnel tests has been carried out and field tests are currently being performed with scaled models. The main idea is to develop two different power-size technologies: Vortex Gran for mass power generation, big clients, renewable energy investors and electricity companies up to 1 MW and Vortex Mini for domestic or industrial generation near the consumption point up to 4 kW.

The wind energy market in 2013 has a 70000 million euros evaluation with 318 GW power installation all over the world. According to some studies, the expected growth will be up to 600 GW power installation in 2020, with substantial increase of offshore installations and this could be a stunning opportunity for Vortex Bladeless technology. The latter will lead to 53% less manufacturing costs, 51% off in operating costs, 80% off in maintenance costs, 40% global power generation costs reduction and 40% carbon footprint reduction.

Because there is no contact between moving parts, there is no friction, therefore, no lubricant is required. No replacement of spare parts either. No gears or bearings. It requires no energy, or training to use. In conclusion, could Vortex Bladeless be a real and forward revolution in wind energy? Crowdfunding has just started.