There appears to be a lot of innovation in wind power at the moment. Last week the O2 announced a deal with Alpha 311 which will enable the arena to sport a range of innovative new “vertical wind turbines’ ‘ which will generate clean electricity for the building even when there is no wind.
Now a Spanish company says it can harness the power of the wind without the requirement of turbine towers, blades or wind.
Vortex Bladeless has pioneered a turbine design that can harness energy from wind in a wholly unconventional way. Its three-meter high turbines are a curve-topped cylinder fixed vertically with an elastic rod. It works by oscillating within the wind range and generates electricity from the vibration.
“Our technology has different characteristics which can help to fill the gaps where traditional windfarms might not be appropriate,” says the inventor David Yáñez. The idea being that the Vortex Bladeless could be sited in urban areas, or places where wind farms would not have been considered appropriate.
Yanez believes that countries save on their energy bills.
This could be wind power’s answer to the home solar panel, says Yáñez.
“They complement each other well, because solar panels produce electricity during the day while wind speeds tend to be higher at night,” he says. “But the main benefit of the technology is in reducing its environmental impact, its visual impact, and the cost of operating and maintaining the turbine.”
He adds that unlike traditional wind farms, the Vortex Bladeless is not a menace to birdlife and is ultra-quiet so won’t disturb humans or animals in a community. The company is looking to expand its product to enable it to regenerate large amount of energy. At the moment the turbines is small and only capable of outputting small amounts of electricity
