Bladeless turbine windmill that wiggles and vibrates reminiscent like a dashboard toy, perhaps humorous but science advances our world to even odder and somewhat alien-like technology.
David Yanez, co-founder of the startup Vortex Bladeless in Spain, is the inventor of a bladeless wind turbine, a slender vertical cylinder that oscillates to produce wind power as a typical windmill with propeller blades does.
Utilizing a linear generator, The bladeless turbines stand at 3 metres high, a curve-topped cylinder fixed vertically with an elastic rod. To the untrained eye it appears to waggle back and forth, not unlike a car dashboard toy. In reality, it is designed to oscillate within the wind range and generate electricity from the vibration. It has already raised eyebrows on the forum site Reddit, where the turbine was likened to a giant vibrating sex toy, or “skybrator”.
Yanez states his invention is not a competition against traditional windmills, but to fill a gap where common propeller-type turbines would be impractical in terms of space, location and logistics. Aside from having a small carbon footprint, the advantages over tradition bladed generator windmills are almost zero maintenance as it has no gears or moving parts. These "skybrators" are made of light-weight recycled plastics, which will not rust from weather, humidity and salts. The cost to produce and install is roughly one-quarter the cost to install a typical bladed windmill. And most importantly is the low impact on the environment where the lack of blades do not harm or kill migrating birds and other wildlife.
The Vortex Bladless design has already won the approval of Norway’s state energy company, Equinor, which named Vortex on a list of the 10 most exciting startups in the energy sector. Equinor will also offer the startup development support through its tech accelerator programme.
The Vortex Bladeless attracted the European Commission to fund the Vortex project with an Horizon 2020 programme for research & innovation. Microgravity Institute of the Technical University of Madrid and the European University of Madrid, alongside CDTI, BirdLife International, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Altair Hyperworks provided advanced simulation computations and support for research and development.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_Bladeless
https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/05/27/167972/bladeless-wind-turbines-may-offer-more-form-than-function/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bladeless-turbine-1.6040555
Image courtesy of vortexbladeless.com
