Residents of Dubai may one day experience a unique and constantly changing skyline thanks to Dynamic Architecture’s wind powered rotating skyscraper. The main idea behind their concept involves a central concrete core surrounded by 59 independently rotating levels. The skyscraper would generate its own electricity from the massive horizontal wind turbines that would be stacked in between each floor. This idea may seem outlandish or impossibly expensive, but the oil price boom in Dubai has already funded many other similarly massive and complex architectural projects. If oil prices continue to increase these rotating wonders may be seen on Dubai’s horizon within the next few years. Thanks Alt-e-news!
Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill). Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy. As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hours, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs. The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building. However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size.
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The Economist has an interesting article about different proposals to harvest wind energy from the jet stream (elevation: 10km). A San Diego, CA company called Sky WindPower wants to send giant kite-turbines into the jet stream to generate power.
“Mr Shepard’s flying generator looks like a cross between a kite and a helicopter. It has four rotors at the points of an H-shaped frame that is tethered to the ground by a long cable. The rotors act like the surface of a kite, providing the lift needed to keep the platform in the air. As they do so, they also turn dynamos that generate electricity. This power is transmitted to the ground through aluminium cables. Should there be a lull in the wind, the dynamos can be used in reverse as electric motors, to keep the generator airborne.”
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March 22, 2007 at 5:35 pm · Filed under Wind Power
The rapid growth of wind power in the United States has resulted in two new factories to manufacture wind turbine blades. Knight & Carver opened its wind blade manufacturing and repair facility in Howard, South Dakota, on March 6th. The new facility will serve as the wind blade headquarters for Knight & Carver, which was previously better known for building yachts. The 26,000-square-foot facility will employ as many as 25 full-time employees in 2007, with plans to expand to a 25-person workforce within two years.Meanwhile, Vestas announced on March 20th that it has decided to build a wind blade factory in Windsor, Colorado. The new $60 million facility, located between Fort Collins and Greeley, will have a production capacity of 1,200 blades per year and will employ about 400 people. The Danish company bills itself as the leading supplier of wind power technology in the world, and has already installed more than 9,300 wind turbines in the United States. In early March, Vestas received an order for eight of its 3-megawatt wind turbines, which will be installed at the Tehachapi Pass in Southern California as part of an effort to install 1,500 megawatts of wind power there. Construction on the new blade factory will begin soon, and the factory will start producing wind turbine blades in early 2008.
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The wind is always blowing here and my coming DIY project is setting up a mini windmill. I have considered a lot of different setups from the Calorius mill that produces hot water directly in the tower (no generator) to a grid-connected setup. The mini generator market is so small that it is impossible to find the right setup as a standard package, and I am not a genius when it comes to calculating inverters.
The hot water mill, Calorius, was too expensive. On-grid setup - also very expensive, the inverter would cost more than the mill and since I am looking for a less than 2 diameter mill (mills less than 2 meters can be installed without applying for it) there would be nothing but expenses.
Instead I am going for a 24 Volt mill that only will be used for the boiler in our hot water tank. The tank is already connected to solar panels and a wood stove/oilburner. This is working great but in the summer when we do not need hot water for anything but the how showers it would be nice to avoid burning wood or oil on (partly) cloudy days.
So what I need is a mill, a battery, a charger and boiler.
The mill above is from www.procure.dk. It is a 600 Watt, 24 Volt mill, that seems inexpensive. (a bit more than 1.000 euro) It comes complete with chargecontroller. It is made in China and it worries me a bit compared to:
The other one I consider is the American build Air X One from South West Windpower. Link. It is smaller and cheaper than
the other but can also do 400 Watt at 12,5 m/s. Download video here: link. It has a build-in chargecontroller in the mill-head.
February 18, 2007 at 12:55 pm · Filed under Wind Power
The booming wind energy markets around the world exceeded expectations in 2006, with the sector experiencing yet another record year. On the day of the publication of the 4th Assessment Report on Climate Change by the IPCC, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released its annual figures for 2006. These figures, which include wind energy developments in more than 70 countries around the world, show that the year saw the installation of 15,197 megawatts (MW), taking the total installed wind energy capacity to 74,223 MW, up from 59,091 MW in 2005.
The countries with the highest total installed capacity are Germany (20,621 MW), Spain (11,615 MW), the USA (11,603 MW), India (6,270 MW) and Denmark (3,136). Thirteen countries around the world can now be counted among those with over 1000 MW of wind capacity, with France and Canada reaching this threshold in 2006.
In terms of new installed capacity in 2006, the US continued to lead with 2,454 MW, followed by Germany (2,233 MW), India (1,840 MW), Spain (1,587 MW), China (1,347 MW) and France (810 MW). This development shows that new players such as France and China are gaining ground.
Off the grid blog writes:
“I found a fantastic government resource [PDF], with documentation on what you need to consider when going off the electrical grid either as a new home builder, or home renovator. There are pages and pages of detailed suggestions, and steps for planning an ideal off-grid home, so browse or delve right in. You can’t help but learn something by reading just a page of it. Here are a few interesting points and definitions from the document:
Off-grid homes have shortened the [electricity delivery] line and have the electricity generating equipment in their backyards [instead of hundreds of kilometers away]. Their electricity comes from a photovoltaic array (solar panel), wind turbine, micro-hydro turbine and/or a fossil-fueled generator. Collectively, the other parts of the system equipment are known as the balance of system (BOS) and include low-voltage (12 volt) direct current (DC) electrical storage (batteries) and regulating equipment (controller, inverter, battery charger, DC disconnect and monitor) right in the house. Instead of paying for someone else to look after the supply of electricity, people living off-grid need to be their own power managers.”
The Economist has an interesting article about different proposals to harvest wind energy from the jet stream (elevation: 10km). A San Diego, CA company called Sky WindPower wants to send giant kite-turbines into the jet stream to generate power.
1 Vind Generator Air X Land - 24V. (US build with integrated chargecontroller)
The booming wind energy markets around the world exceeded expectations in 2006, with the sector experiencing yet another record year. On the day of the publication of the 4th Assessment Report on Climate Change by the IPCC, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released its annual figures for 2006. These figures, which include wind energy developments in more than 70 countries around the world, show that the year saw the installation of 15,197 megawatts (MW), taking the total installed wind energy capacity to 74,223 MW, up from 59,091 MW in 2005.
