They’re not the perfect source of renewable energy, but wind turbines could soon be more efficient and as silent as the wind thanks to a radical new redesign by an Australian company.
The traditional wind turbine design can actually produce a lot of noise as the wind comes off the tips of the three blades as they slice through the air. So instead of three large blades, the Eco Whisper employs 30 smaller ones that are capped with a specially designed cowl ring that makes them virtually silent in most conditions. Their unique cone shape allows the blades to automatically rotate into the direction of the wind, without the need for a heavy tail structure.
The redesign also makes the blades more efficient at catching the wind, so the turbine produces about 30 per cent more power at average speeds, and will keep running when the winds are very slow. The smaller blades allow the Eco Whisper turbines to be about half the height of a three blade turbine. As a result the engineers were able to integrate a hinge into the support pole so it can be easily lowered for maintenance, or to prevent damage in the event of extreme conditions. It certainly sounds like an all around improvement, so here’s to hoping they can get it produced at a competitive price to encourage wide adoption. [Eco Whisper Turbine via Gizmag]
Sam D
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 7:50 AMShame that it doesn’t look as elegant as the current design. I know a number of people don’t like them, but seeing a windfarm on top of a hill is a nice sight and very relaxing to me.
Awnshegh
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 8:16 AMUnfortunately I think this alone may curb uptake of the redisigned system. – At least until it becomes cheaper than the pretty white ones.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:12 AM“Pretty”? I think they are a blight on the landscape and should be confined to urban areas. I’d rather the occasional coal-fired power station than wind farms every few km, which is how they are in places like Germany. It is about the worst solution I can think of.
Peter
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:53 AMWhat if they made the cost of electricity sourced directly proportional to the distance from the turbines, providing some noticable benefit to those located close to wind farms and accounting for the cost, risk and maintenance of supporting a grid.
Would that be enough to cross the hurdle of ‘not in my backyard’?
jeremy
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:07 AM“rather a coal plant” ! wow, mercury emmissions, coal dust, piles of fly ash and huge trucks/trains – really? Odd …
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 11:47 AMIf the alternative is that millions of hectares of natural landscape is defiled by wind turbines, then yes, I’ll put up with all that. At least there aren’t all that many of them.
Realistically though, I question the need for centralised electricity generation at all. My yacht uses a combination of solar and wind power to keep the deep cycle batteries charged, which runs all my stuff – fridge, TV, stereo, lights, PC, etc., without the need to defile the landscape at all. If everyone took responsibility for their own power generation, we’d only need a few power stations to run street lighting. I think it is a much more viable alternative for a sustainable future.
TSH
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 12:01 PMI like your thinking, but most people don’t have their own yacht! :–]. Many house-owners could have solar panels and such (for a quite hefty price), but what about apartment-dwellers?
maddogeco
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1:57 PMi like the idea of interdependent power generation but battery suck. there bad for the environment they wear out and they are so big and expensive
jono
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 12:24 PMYour yacht also uses an alternator attached to a diesel engine to pump electricity into your batteries – I’ve never heard of any kind of realistic onboard electronics for a yacht which can run solely off solar/wind generation alone.
And how was that yacht made? That diesel engine? Those solar panels and that wind generator? Even the diesel in your tanks? By heavy industries – and these are the guys who suck up most of the worlds electricity supply.
I think it’s rather naive and arrogant to say that the burden of electricity generation should be on the retail consumer – sure; we can call help, but at the end of the day it’s more efficient to generate large amounts of electricity in one place than little amounts all over the place.
Steve
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 2:10 PMThis is the worst thing I’ve heard from you yet Motormouth. Because all families have access to yachts and solar/wind power generation? Are you so out of touch with the modern home that you don’t realise that most families now live in apartment complexes that make this sort of scheme completely nonsensical?
Gomisan
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 11:55 AMI agree, elegant and beautiful are how I would describe wind farms. They have a minimalistic modern appeal and in my opinion don’t detract from the landscape at all.
That’s not to say every view should have wind farms, but they’re certainly not a blight.
jj
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 7:53 AMIf they reduce sound they may also reduce the buffetting effects and nausia that people surrounding current wind turbines get.
olearymo
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:56 AM+1 – really hope to see this kind of thing used more
Stefan
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 12:39 PMI don’t believe that has been proven, there was a four corners program on it sometime this year.
G
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 8:02 AMLooks like it could double as a satellite dish
Andrew
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 8:05 AMI kind of like the look of these over the more conventional ones. It’s almost like a modern take on the old rusty farm windmills you see dotted around for water purposes.
Ed
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 8:31 AMAnother great Australian design and inovation that will be manufactured over seas because of an expensive work force and governmental red tape. There is only one way this can compete with cheap Chinese turbines… BE a cheap chinese turbine.
Titsnass
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:16 AMJust hope that cheap overseas production doesn’t crash any time soon, or we’ll all be in the shit! If that happens we will have to start buying really expensive crap instead of the dirt cheap crap we buy now!
Josh
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 8:42 AMLooks like a windmill you would find on a farm pumping water.
Chemenski
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:42 AMThey have one of these near my place. It looks hideous, it stands out like a sore thumb.
Stagger
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 9:48 AMDeal with it.
Pat
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:29 AMIt just needs some paint, and neon lights. Geez people, you’re getting better performance and suddenly you want coal fire! Unbelievable.
James
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:41 AMI can’t believe people are whining about how it looks. It’s better for the environment, is quieter, better power output and all you hear is crying about “it looks horrible!”
Bring them on. Another tick for Australian ingenuety.
TSH
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 12:04 PMhaha yeah, take any chance to disregard real progress! :–P. I wonder what they’d say if it were painted/coloured pure white? Or if the photo was taken from an angle where the sun was hitting the blades *just so*?
Steve
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 6:24 PMFirst world problems. I love how the benefits offered by renewable resources like wind is being completely dismissed by some because of their aesthetic sensibilities about it disrupting the view in areas very few people live. NIMBY mentality at its finest.
Mike
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 11:07 AMLooks fine to me, and if the improvements listed are true, sounds like a very big win. That “up to 30% more” line on the site is suspicious, average will probably be 1-5% more lol. Hate that companies always do that, cherry picking…
ausstorageguy
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1:58 PMI think it’s a bit unfair of those who say “deal with it” etc.
They have to ask themselves if they would say the same thing to having an airport built in their suburb or a freeway right behind their house.
The sheer noise from the current type is just intollerable. Hopefully this really is quieter.
But from a visual aspect, windfarms are a visual blight on some otherwise very beautiful landscapes and it doesn’t matter what you do with them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for reducing energy impacts on the environment, but everything has an impact in someway.
But one thing I’d love to know is what is the real environmental savings with a wind turbine – in any from.
For example, if the turbines are made from steel,
copper (for the windings),
aluminium, carbon fibre,
concrete (for the footings),
polymers (plastics – typically from pretroleum base)
Glass
Ceramics
Are then tooled, shapped and manufactured.
Then taking into account transport(they are typically made overseas and transported via an oil burning ship)and implementation (trucks, cranes etc and helicopters to put the
Implementation of the transmission lines (copper, steel, aluminium, glass etc)
What is the actual environmental payback for a wind turbine, how long does a turbine have to run for before it’s paid it’s self off enviromentally and will it last long enough to do so?
That is, after all of the energy spent manufacturing and transporting them.
@Stagger: “Deal wih it” will you be saying the same thing with one of these in your back garden? Grab a tent, and sleep under one for a week and see.
bugwan
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 2:11 PMWho sleeps under a wind turbine?
Does anyone need to sleep anywhere near them? Put them offshore or in sparsely populated areas if you’re that dead against them.
Seriously, if you can successfully argue that the noise and appearance of a coal-fired generating station is better than a wind turbine, you may as well sell this bag of ice I’ve been keeping to the eskimos.
ausstorageguy
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 3:00 PM@Bugwan: Do you live anywhere near one?
One of the outlaw’s does, he’s been “gifted” with 2 dozen wind turbines less than a mile from his house. The noise is so bad, he’s sent his wife and kids to her parents so the kids can sleep.
Whilst I agree with your statement, even sparsely populated area’s affect someone.
Regarding Coal-fired generation, well they don’t exactly place them in the middle of Castle hill, Kedron, Northbridge or any other suburb do they?
Putting them out to sea presents another challenge it’s self, including damage to aquaculture, transmission and maintenance, plus the added cost of the marinised steel walls for the tubes.
Coal and other generation provide the base load, very difficult to get round with wind farms.
Going to places like Woolnorth, you soon see nature marred by modernity, sure some enjoy the view of such minimalistic and modern appliances, but others try to escape from modern life, if these are dotted all over the country side, there is nowhere left to hide.
havinalaugh
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 6:31 PMwow what a great imagination to come up with such a story ! I’ve been involved with wind energy for 20 years and unless this is some incredily large turbine that I am not aware of or, of the dubious eastern design using sea water or simlar as lubricant I’d say this was poppycock!
Chuck
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:32 PM5-6 months pay back for a large turbine, they don’t put out token power outputs like solar panels.
Ron Van Wegen
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1:58 PMCrikey, this thing looks like a bird-slaughter funnel!
MDG
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 3:19 PMAt least the birds can see this thing with the solid outer ring….
And are burds really as dumb as some people think..
Which 1 bird did you count killed by a wind turbine….
Also, the Noise from wind turbines, sure that isn’t the noise from the wind you are talking about….
Granted I don’t live under a large wind turbine, but when I ride around the countryside I don’t really hear the turbines…
After-all we pump all kinds of noise out of machines and call it “music”.. Sure one can get accustomed to the low frequency rhythmic beat of a wind turbine…. People are just complaining because they aren’t getting any benefit from the art on the landscape…. ask the Land owners who do get rent from them if they are noisy.
Bungarra
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 4:16 PMLiving on an outback station I have solar but not wind because I enjoy the peace and quiet. If it is true what they say about its lack of noise generation and they make a model to suit my needs.
I’ll be among the first to buy it
Deegee
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 6:03 PMAs an Australian wind engineer I work with designing wind farm sites everyday.
I would love if Australian companies led the innovation future! I think that economic price is just as an important factor as anything else though.
Wind turbines are definitely not a perfect energy solution but I would suggest to anyone that thinks they are noisy to go visit one, as the vast majority of people are surprised once they hear one for themselves. The media hypes up their noise and unproven headache problems.
Yay for Australian renewable energy!
P.S. the noise is from when the air is compressed between the blade and the tower, and not from the tips of the blades
Chuck
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 10:36 PMNone of us who work right near the turbines for over ten hours a day get any form of sickness or nausea, it is bullshit. I feel sorry for the people who believe they get sick as they are getting conned by people willing to lie as part of their protest.
Paul
Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 10:44 AMI wish them all the best, I hope they do either start to instal these or improve the design more so that it can be used throughout the world. Wind farms are a great idea, it’s just too bad it really devalues the homes around them.
slider
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 4:01 PMThe only way this idea makes sense is if one chooses to ignore basic physics, aerodynamics, and economics. There’s a very fundamental reason utility-scale wind turbines use three bladed rotors on a horizontal axis.
Conor
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 1:13 PMFinally someone talks sense_thank you Slider. This machine is a hack_complete BS_if it makes no noise its because its not generating any power. Everything about the design is complete nonsense to anyone who knows anything about wind energy. Bungarra has it_It does look like a wind mill for pumping water. Lots of blades means slower turning and absolutley no good for generating electricity. There was many years of design to come up with the optimal 3 blade design you see today. Its stable and produces electricity. This kind of hack design gives wind and renewables a bad name_plese don’t waste any money buying one.