Urban wind-power production will eventually be an important component of our national energy policy. Wind-Sail, a San Francisco development company and a division of Empire Magnetics, is creating its new vertical axis wind power turbines, with design and engineering help from an interesting source, some out of work Russian missile engineers from the Makeyev State Rocket Center in Miass, Russia. In a bizarre twist, the Russian engineers are currently funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the IPP (Initiative for Proliferation Prevention). The IPP program is designed to keep out-of-work missile scientists from dabbling in intercontinental ballistic weaponry.
The Wind-Sail vertical turbines are designed to be quiet, efficient, rooftop installed and in some cases, without a tower.
Now, about those ICBM’s….
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Very cool. I think that turbines that can be designed, installed and integrated into the residential (or commercial) design without a lot of bulky equipment will eventually become really popular. Great idea.
This double structure offset blade VAWT is good technology.
I think that VAWT’s (vertical axis wind turbines)are highly desirable because the height requirments are not severe as with HAWT’s (horizontal axis wind turbines) and so they can be roof mounted, in many cases. I was planning such a system with grid tie capabilities but found, to my dismay, that our utility company required UL (underwriter laboratory) certification not only for the grid tie inverter that would link the power to the utility, but for every single item of equipment including the wind turbine and the controller. I agree that UL certification should be required for the grid tie inverter but since the utility company (HECO in Hawaii) has nothing to do with the generation of the power, they were overstepping regulation boundaries. They state that this is for the safety of the resident but my concern is that it has nothing to do with the grid tie connection per se.
adrianakau2aol.com
Sounds like HECO is trying to make it as difficult as possible for you to cut into their bill. Vertical axis turbines technology seems to be taking hold.
Thanks for dropping the comment.
Good luck.
I wonder about the roof top mount comment.. ANY wind generator benefits from 2 things – windspeed and lack of turbulance. Both of these are positives with an increase in height. Low windspeed and a lot of turbulance are the likely result of a roof mount installation, which translates into poor performance of the turbine.
Another issue is vibration transmission through the structure, which is a very strong reason for not using an inhabited building as a turbine mount. Anyone who knows what they are talking about will tell you that a roof top install is the last resort, and even then not recommended.
Why hasn’t anybody contacted Ross Perot, Jr. regarding the pre-production model he is having installed on the rooftop of his office building in downtown Dallas, Tx. sometime in Feb. or March of 2006. Surely one and a half years is enough time for Mr. Perot to have formed an opinion as to the validity of this product.