4 ms·

Has a San Antonio inventor solved a problem of small-scale wind power?

32 points by thelastgallon 3y ago

Animats 3y ago
"Marsh believes he has found a way out of this dilemma with a patent-pending “secret sauce” he declines to discuss in detail, which he says can limit the amount of voltage generated so that it never exceeds what a charge controller can handle, even as high winds spin the turbine blades rapidly." That's not usually the problem with overspeed. It's the blades or bearings breaking and blades flying off. If you have a generator with a field winding, you can turn off the field current and not generate much. But then the blades spin too fast with no braking from the generator. We're missing some key info here.
- detourdog 3y ago
  Sounds like regenerative braking to me.
  - jldugger 3y ago
    Isn't the entire wind turbine regenerative breaking?
    - detourdog 3y ago
      I suppose so. I thought this was extending the upper limit of operation.
- sfblah 3y ago
  Couldn't you just let it generate the voltage and then dissipate it as heat?
  - dharmab 3y ago
    Thermal management is not an easy problem, especially for outdoor equipment.
- intalentive 3y ago
  Why not have something like the multiple gears of a bicycle, and automatically shift gears when it starts spinning too fast?
  - pixl97 3y ago
    The best part is no part. Transmissions provide a weak point where things break.
    - skeeter2020 3y ago
      ...and need maintenance, and cost more. It just seems like an engineering problem that can be avoided vs. solved.
  - idiotsecant 3y ago
    You can essentially already do this without the moving parts with very high efficiency using fancy power electronics. Transmissions are expensive, complex, and inefficient.
gabereiser 3y ago
“My truck is so badass you can feel the ground shaking.” Such a Texas thing to say. I had my fair share of wind turbines on my sailboat. Nothing this guy is taking about is 1) new. 2) novel. 3) revolutionary. What he’s trying to do is white-wash and “patriot”ize a simple existing technology. Only with half a brain cell so he thinks he’s solving the worlds energy crisis. Wind turbines are loud. The faster they spin, the louder. The faster they spin the more potential for hazardous blade separation. I once sliced right through a dinghy with one. Imagine if that was little Melody with her stuffed animal. The future of energy is not physical force pushing propellers to drive alternators, it’s capturing (and harnessing) the power of the sun. Solar panels provide 2-3x the output, none of the physical dangers, and are quieter than an ants whisper.
- woodruffw 3y ago
  Without any particular regard for this guy, it seems (to me) like the future has plenty of space for both: the US has a vast, windswept, mostly unpopulated interior where a somewhat noisy wind mill isn’t a significant concern. Capturing some of that energy seems like a good idea to me, especially if we can use it to offset solar’s cyclical nature.
  - b112 3y ago
    And when those windmills slow the earth's rotation, eventually tidal locking the Earth on one side, where will your precious environment be then, hmm?? (what I imagine a typical Texan must be thinking)
    - doodlebugging 3y ago
      >where will your precious environment be then, hmm?? As a Texan I feel compelled to answer this question. You will find the environment right out there where the front fell off.
      - Crosseye_Jack 3y ago
        > the front fell off Yeah, that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point.
chris222 3y ago
This one looks more promising. https://www.halcium.com/ https://www.halcium.com/
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
  > As of September 2021, we raised a small seed round to continue development. They still own the domain name, so there's that.
hadlock 3y ago
The issue I've always run in to when crunching the numbers on off-grid wind is average wind speed at any particular location. If you're within a certain distance of the Texas coast, you'll have the necessary wind, but average wind speed in the US is closer to 4mph, which isn't really enough to pull meaningful power out of a 3' diameter wind turbine. In many cases the power generated isn't enough to trigger the output relays.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  If these smaller turbines don't weigh much, is there really no cheap way to build a 40-50 ft tower where's there's more wind? And is there any hope there will be in the near future?
  - qorrect 3y ago
    All of the small wind turbines I have seen have been mounted on a tower, which creates its own set of headaches. But yes the tower is a must usually.
CapitalistCartr 3y ago
The answer to wind and solar power turns out to be huge, centralized installations, not a hundred million individual installations. There is a solar farm near my house, at a power plant, that is over two miles long. Windmills are most efficient when they are huge and slow.
- AtlasBarfed 3y ago
  I see the industrial advantage of massive windmills, but "industrial" solar is generally the same panels they slap on roofs. The scale isn't due to physics, it's due to financing. Residential solar would work great if financing was generous but stipulated the cost had to be reasonably close to grid procurement cost. Well, and we need to scale up sodium ion cells for home storage. Home solar with storage adds resilience to communities, and should lessen the amount of transmission infrastructure needed for EVs.
  - Omin 3y ago
    The problem with residential solar is not the panels, it's the installation, connection to the electric network which differs from house to house and having to work with the homeowners.
    - AtlasBarfed 3y ago
      But I see something that is essentially local labor, so investing government funds into that labor should produce more localized GDP effects. And I fail to see how that should inflate the cost 2-5x over grid solar. Ok, 2x I can somewhat accept, I guess. But it's not like each house in existence is a complete random topological shape never seen before. I feel there is some ... impedence ... in the home solar business that is holding it back. I think grid solar and home solar are two separate fronts attacking the same problem, but home solar makes home owners much more aware of efficiency as well. IMO there is policy failures in home solar currently.
Jedd 3y ago
> Marsh believes he has found a way out of this dilemma with a patent-pending “secret sauce” he declines to discuss in detail, ... Presumably this is not a solution that has already been applied (unsuccessfully) to the technology in this field, so any comment that starts with "If he's just ... then ..." probably doesn't advance us much. Might be fantastic, might contain a fundamental flaw that hasn't presented yet, there's basically zero information given in TFA other than one other evidently qualified person has reviewed the design and granted the inventor the appellation of 'crafty'.
effnorwood 3y ago
[dead]

32 points by thelastgallon 3y ago

"Marsh believes he has found a way out of this dilemma with a patent-pending “secret sauce” he declines to discuss in detail, which he says can limit the amount of voltage generated so that it never exceeds what a charge controller can handle, even as high winds spin the turbine blades rapidly." That's not usually the problem with overspeed. It's the blades or bearings breaking and blades flying off. If you have a generator with a field winding, you can turn off the field current and not generate much. But then the blades spin too fast with no braking from the generator. We're missing some key info here.

detourdog 3y ago
Sounds like regenerative braking to me.
- jldugger 3y ago
  Isn't the entire wind turbine regenerative breaking?
  - detourdog 3y ago
    I suppose so. I thought this was extending the upper limit of operation.
sfblah 3y ago
Couldn't you just let it generate the voltage and then dissipate it as heat?
- dharmab 3y ago
  Thermal management is not an easy problem, especially for outdoor equipment.
intalentive 3y ago
Why not have something like the multiple gears of a bicycle, and automatically shift gears when it starts spinning too fast?
- pixl97 3y ago
  The best part is no part. Transmissions provide a weak point where things break.
  - skeeter2020 3y ago
    ...and need maintenance, and cost more. It just seems like an engineering problem that can be avoided vs. solved.
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  You can essentially already do this without the moving parts with very high efficiency using fancy power electronics. Transmissions are expensive, complex, and inefficient.

gabereiser 3y ago

“My truck is so badass you can feel the ground shaking.” Such a Texas thing to say. I had my fair share of wind turbines on my sailboat. Nothing this guy is taking about is 1) new. 2) novel. 3) revolutionary. What he’s trying to do is white-wash and “patriot”ize a simple existing technology. Only with half a brain cell so he thinks he’s solving the worlds energy crisis. Wind turbines are loud. The faster they spin, the louder. The faster they spin the more potential for hazardous blade separation. I once sliced right through a dinghy with one. Imagine if that was little Melody with her stuffed animal. The future of energy is not physical force pushing propellers to drive alternators, it’s capturing (and harnessing) the power of the sun. Solar panels provide 2-3x the output, none of the physical dangers, and are quieter than an ants whisper.

woodruffw 3y ago
Without any particular regard for this guy, it seems (to me) like the future has plenty of space for both: the US has a vast, windswept, mostly unpopulated interior where a somewhat noisy wind mill isn’t a significant concern. Capturing some of that energy seems like a good idea to me, especially if we can use it to offset solar’s cyclical nature.
- b112 3y ago
  And when those windmills slow the earth's rotation, eventually tidal locking the Earth on one side, where will your precious environment be then, hmm?? (what I imagine a typical Texan must be thinking)
  - doodlebugging 3y ago
    >where will your precious environment be then, hmm?? As a Texan I feel compelled to answer this question. You will find the environment right out there where the front fell off.
    - Crosseye_Jack 3y ago
      > the front fell off Yeah, that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point.

chris222 3y ago

This one looks more promising. https://www.halcium.com/ https://www.halcium.com/

PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
> As of September 2021, we raised a small seed round to continue development. They still own the domain name, so there's that.

hadlock 3y ago

The issue I've always run in to when crunching the numbers on off-grid wind is average wind speed at any particular location. If you're within a certain distance of the Texas coast, you'll have the necessary wind, but average wind speed in the US is closer to 4mph, which isn't really enough to pull meaningful power out of a 3' diameter wind turbine. In many cases the power generated isn't enough to trigger the output relays.

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
If these smaller turbines don't weigh much, is there really no cheap way to build a 40-50 ft tower where's there's more wind? And is there any hope there will be in the near future?
- qorrect 3y ago
  All of the small wind turbines I have seen have been mounted on a tower, which creates its own set of headaches. But yes the tower is a must usually.

CapitalistCartr 3y ago

The answer to wind and solar power turns out to be huge, centralized installations, not a hundred million individual installations. There is a solar farm near my house, at a power plant, that is over two miles long. Windmills are most efficient when they are huge and slow.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago
I see the industrial advantage of massive windmills, but "industrial" solar is generally the same panels they slap on roofs. The scale isn't due to physics, it's due to financing. Residential solar would work great if financing was generous but stipulated the cost had to be reasonably close to grid procurement cost. Well, and we need to scale up sodium ion cells for home storage. Home solar with storage adds resilience to communities, and should lessen the amount of transmission infrastructure needed for EVs.
- Omin 3y ago
  The problem with residential solar is not the panels, it's the installation, connection to the electric network which differs from house to house and having to work with the homeowners.
  - AtlasBarfed 3y ago
    But I see something that is essentially local labor, so investing government funds into that labor should produce more localized GDP effects. And I fail to see how that should inflate the cost 2-5x over grid solar. Ok, 2x I can somewhat accept, I guess. But it's not like each house in existence is a complete random topological shape never seen before. I feel there is some ... impedence ... in the home solar business that is holding it back. I think grid solar and home solar are two separate fronts attacking the same problem, but home solar makes home owners much more aware of efficiency as well. IMO there is policy failures in home solar currently.

Jedd 3y ago

> Marsh believes he has found a way out of this dilemma with a patent-pending “secret sauce” he declines to discuss in detail, ... Presumably this is not a solution that has already been applied (unsuccessfully) to the technology in this field, so any comment that starts with "If he's just ... then ..." probably doesn't advance us much. Might be fantastic, might contain a fundamental flaw that hasn't presented yet, there's basically zero information given in TFA other than one other evidently qualified person has reviewed the design and granted the inventor the appellation of 'crafty'.

effnorwood 3y ago

[dead]