yet another new turbine design

[bob golding]

hi all, there was a feature on wind turbines on bbc 2 last night. they talked to a design house  that had some weird and wonderful models on display. bit  like those ones arcitects do with lots of trees and no traffic or  litter. one that looked interesting was  called the needle. it folded up when there wasnt any wind and looked like, well a needle of sorts, pretty big needle about 150 ft high. the interesting thing was that when it is windy  a single blade folds out to  about 60 degrees with a short counter weight on the  opposite side.

cant find any info on thier web site  but havent really looked too far. one of the other designs was the swift which if i remember correctly was going to change the world. they still think it might. they  said they designed it to look like a satallite dish to  get around the planning rules. interesting.

bob golding

[drdongle]

Do you have their URL?

[bob golding]

no, will email  the bbc and try and find out more about it.

bob golding

[windstuffnow]

  Bob,

   I did a search on the "swift" and it really doesn't look much different than the standard HAWT's with the exception of the ring around the blades and the tail configuration.  You could accomplish the same thing by using T tips on the blades and capture just as much as the ring and probably more effectively than the ring.  I don't see that design "changing the world" anytime soon.  It is unique though, and looks like a fairly well built machine.  Interesting.

If you find any more info on the "needle" let us know!  I for one am always interested in seeing new inovative designs...

Have Fun

Windstuff Ed

[dalibor]

ed, how did you get naything from google about this? i was not able to find anything.

[bob golding]

http://www.renewabledevices.com/swift/

looking at their figures 9 million pounds / 2000 = 4500 pounds each thats about 8000 dollars each. not cheap. still  no info on the needle design.

bob golding

[windstuffnow]

  This is the site I found about the swift.  Their pdf download is a large one, it took a while on my slow dial up....

http://www.renewabledevices.com/swift/

Have Fun

Windstuff Ed

[dalibor]

huh, this is kind a weird. i have never seen genny with 2 tails.

but this one (like other small industrial made turbines ) made me think how about improving aerodynamics on home built models? how about some cones in front of blade root? did someone made something according to this?

[jamesjones]

I saw the same programme, I wasn't impressed by the Needle at all (it gave me the needle!), the inefficiency of this design was obvious (at least, to me), as it could hardly interact with any of the wind that passed through the swept area, and was LESS attractive than a standard three bladed HAWT (again, to me).

I cringed when the narrator was talking about how the Swift would "only produce 25% of the energy requirements of a house", as if having four of them on a house would be impossible! They seemed to think that the fact that it only produced 25% of the energy needed by a house was the end of the world, and that it was therefore 'not a solution'. Talk about blinkered (not to mention incredibly stupid) thinking. Why not just have four of them? Why not just have one that's just over twice the diameter?

This was typical of the BBC though, and I don't expect to hear anything 'technical' discussed by them without either extensive dumbing down (to the point of appealing only to five year olds - watch Horizon for an example) or simply not understanding basic physics.

When are they going to bring back Tomorrow's World and do a piece about the WindH.O.G.? Or any other new designs of turbines?