4 ms·

Yep, driving wind faster is the key to lowering the size of the turbine's rotor blades. It's an interesting optimization, but the broad design of the tophat mi

Yep, driving wind faster is the key to lowering the size of the turbine's rotor blades. It's an interesting optimization, but the broad design of the tophat might face challenges from adverse weather. During hurricanes or say something like 100mph wind, the upper flower has to recede to save itself. This is not the case with standard wind turbines that just rotate only faster. I am sure they must have thought through all these situations, simply considering only 600% improvement over standard installation doesn't seem like a good way to compare.

Tuna-Fish 13y ago
> This is not the case with standard wind turbines that just rotate only faster. Standard turbines are not left to rotate in high winds -- if they would be, they would destroy themselves. There's a link to a video of this happening in this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9uRSVun30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9uRSVun30 Instead, they are feathered and locked in place. That is, the angle of attack of the blades is reduced to zero so that wind hitting them won't make them turn, and then there is a huge brake in the system that keeps them in place.
- monsterix 13y ago
  Yes, I am aware of the extreme torsional scenarios -- did mechanical/flu-mech course in engineering -- thanks for the video. In case of Sheerwind's funnelling technology a normal windy day could also become a challenge though.
  - arethuza 13y ago
    They do look a bit like old horn style microwave antenna towers - and they seem to survive well enough.
    - VLM 13y ago
      Thank you for making that comparison. There are severe economic issues with paying for a giant funnel using the wind it generates. No one has discussed if you basically turn the funnels into cell tower antennas then you piggy back onto the existing cell phone ecosystem. Or piggy back onto land mobile radio trunking system ecosystem, or legacy broadcast media ecosystem. You're building a giant horn antenna. Why not make it conductive and collect some "free" cash?
      - mark-r 13y ago
        Interestingly enough their pilot installation is right next door to a municipal water tower which is bristling with cell antennae.
VLM 13y ago
Luckily, as the cross sectional area shrinks, the price of valves shrinks. As for pressure inside the horn theoretically bursting it, well, I think you'll be OK but if you insist, protection gear would be little more than hinges along one edge of a panel and a spring on the other, not much different than a very large turbocharger wastegate (very large as in stationary multimegawatt class diesel size)

Tuna-Fish 13y ago

> This is not the case with standard wind turbines that just rotate only faster. Standard turbines are not left to rotate in high winds -- if they would be, they would destroy themselves. There's a link to a video of this happening in this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9uRSVun30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9uRSVun30 Instead, they are feathered and locked in place. That is, the angle of attack of the blades is reduced to zero so that wind hitting them won't make them turn, and then there is a huge brake in the system that keeps them in place.

monsterix 13y ago
Yes, I am aware of the extreme torsional scenarios -- did mechanical/flu-mech course in engineering -- thanks for the video. In case of Sheerwind's funnelling technology a normal windy day could also become a challenge though.
- arethuza 13y ago
  They do look a bit like old horn style microwave antenna towers - and they seem to survive well enough.
  - VLM 13y ago
    Thank you for making that comparison. There are severe economic issues with paying for a giant funnel using the wind it generates. No one has discussed if you basically turn the funnels into cell tower antennas then you piggy back onto the existing cell phone ecosystem. Or piggy back onto land mobile radio trunking system ecosystem, or legacy broadcast media ecosystem. You're building a giant horn antenna. Why not make it conductive and collect some "free" cash?
    - mark-r 13y ago
      Interestingly enough their pilot installation is right next door to a municipal water tower which is bristling with cell antennae.

VLM 13y ago

Luckily, as the cross sectional area shrinks, the price of valves shrinks. As for pressure inside the horn theoretically bursting it, well, I think you'll be OK but if you insist, protection gear would be little more than hinges along one edge of a panel and a spring on the other, not much different than a very large turbocharger wastegate (very large as in stationary multimegawatt class diesel size)