4 Comments Add your own

• 1. Peter Laws  |  October 25th, 2011 at 11:59

  Waste of time. In fact, some are even scams. The VAWTs is that they only ever present half their wind-making profile to the wind regardless of the wind’s direction. The other half is fighting against the same wind! Horizontal-axis wind turbines, OTOH, always have 100% of that surface aimed into the wind.

  Kind of neat looking, but that won’t make up for its inherent inefficiency.

• 2. Jaime  |  October 28th, 2011 at 17:51

  The disadvantages of the VAWT are many, but that, Peter, is not the while story. Their primary disadvantages are related to fatigue and various dynamic problems (ie: rapid changes in angle of attack lead to dynamic stall events at even moderate rotational speeds, and flutter isn’t out of the question either).

  However, the fraction of ‘wind gathering area’ is not a disadvantage. Firstly, by using the energy in entirely different ways the comparison cannot be direct. And second, turbines are rated on a power-per-investment basis, not just raw power. VAWTs can be spaced closer together potentially reducing land costs, the placement of most serviceable parts at ground level greatly reduces maintenance requirements, and their reduced materials requirements (ie: strength and stiffness of support structures, low-weight blades with dramatic span-wise changes in cross-section, etc) also reduce capital costs. Also worth noting that HAWTs are not wind-vanes, and must be physically re-positioned to face the wind – at a large cost in mechanical complexity.

  Now, this isn’t to say that either is without their place. For large, industrial-scale power solutions, HAWTs are the usual route for good reason. But their rugged and simple designs, low wind-speed requirements, and low maintenance and capital costs make VAWTs appropriate for many, many applications and they should not be simply discounted as a technology.

• 3. Calvin Jones  |  November 7th, 2011 at 15:00

  Can the stem and internal mechanism support more than one turbine?

• 4. Mike  |  April 14th, 2012 at 11:39

  Is this turbine close to production? It is a very nice architectural piece that offers some energy as a bonus. Please let me know.
  Thanks,
  Mike

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