I received this reply today: ( I am going to pay them a visit soon)
Mr Moore,
Thank You for your interest in our wind turbines,and I will do my best to answer your questions. I apologize that our web site is not well defined and we definately need to update. Let me explain that we have an original design and our new design and I will explain the difference between the two.
Our original design has a gear train with miter gears that connects blades to a drive line that goes through the middle of our tower to the base of the tower. A series of alternators (24 volt truck alternators) will then charge the battery bank which is then connected to grid tie inverters, this is why batteries and grid tie technology was both referenced to on our web site. Spur gears is applied to drive line to get appropriate speed for alternators for specified output. The mass direction (larger units)is controlled with a PLC (programmable logic controller)by using a 0-10 volt potentiometer connected to a wind vain. The mass has 48 points for 360 degree rotation,with each point having a reference to the potentiometer,for example point 1 being 0 to .208 volts, point 2 being .209 -.417 volts etc. The PLC then energizes a gear motor to turn the mass to appropriate direction. A time delay is programmed into the PLC to eliminate constant adjusting of the
mass during wind gust that can change wind direction momentarily and then return to orginal direction, therefore wind has to change direction for 5 seconds before gear-motor is energized. Our blade material is galvanized metal attached to a galvanized steel frame, with the surface area being the concept of creating massive torque. Also using galvanized blades compared to fiberglass we have eliminated stress crack problems that has been reported with fiberglass blades. We have two basic ways incorporated for high wind speed issues,first with our blade design as wind comes off the front of the blade it will catch the back of the oncoming blade since we use so much surface area, therefore making it self governing. The second way is the PLC is monitoring rpm and is programmed to start turning mass away from direct wind which is our directional brake.
Our new design has many of the same designs as our original, but also includes many changes. We were assisted by an engineer with a masters in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech and created a more efficient and productive units compared to our original design. We changed our generating method to a low rpm AC three phase permanent magnet generator that is mounted on the mass instead of at the bottom of the units.This eliminates the series of miter gears and having to create such a high speed increase needed for previous alternators. This generator lets us start producing at even lower wind speeds and uses less torque to produce electricity this also eliminates the need for a battery bank.The current is then run through a controller which is used as an rectifier and monitors for over voltage due to high wind speeds. This now gives us three ways of dealing with high wind speeds, also if controller has excess voltage it is channeled into a load dump
protecting the grid tie inverter from an over voltage situation.
Some other features of our turbines are that our frames are galvanized steel. Units are erected with a hydraulic ram therefore greatly reducing installation cost by not requiring cranes or excessive equipment to erect.
Some of our units weigh up to 6000 lbs with 20,000 lbs of concrete in the base, so they are not lightweight units.
We are a new company and currently we only have a prototype that we are converting to our new design and it is the unit we have used to test different mass cofigurations. We have made presentations to some municipals and are being proposed for purchase in new fiscal budget year which will start in October. If approved we will have some large units in operation. I am attaching a short video of one of our test masses running in 6 mph wind, and we also engaged the directional brake so you can see how effective it works. We have also applied this brake in extreme high winds with the same results.
I hope I have answered all of your questions, if not please feel free to contact me by e-mail or telephone.
Thanks again for your interest and thank you for your time and consideration
Carl Nixon
Endless Supply Energy
(806) 577-9146
