Eco-friendly bladeless small wind energy. Startup technology Vortex wind power
Vortex Bladeless Ltd.,,。,,。
Vortex Bladeless Ltd. is a Spanish technology startup company that is developing a specific type of wind power generator without rotating blades or lubricants.[1] Power is produced from resonant vibrations when wind passes through the turbine and is deflected into vortices in a process called vortex shedding.[2]
This technology might replace previous solar electricity installations, such as low-power systems, off-grid generation, autonomous systems, and distributed generation of electricity.[3]
Vortex Bladeless is currently working on two future products that are expected to be commercially available in 2021. The specified goals for each model are:[10]
With Vortex technology, the amount of energy harnessed grows exponentially squared by height and cubed by wind speed. Thus, bigger Vortex devices are desirable since production costs grow more slowly than power generation with height, giving as a result more profitable and efficient devices able to work with higher winds. As of 2021[update], because of their small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) status, the firm is only working on these small wind turbine alternative devices.[11]
In early 2014, Vortex obtained public funding from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and began to collaborate with Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)[14] and their huge computing resources for the simulations on vortex-induced vibrations (VIV), magnetic field interactions, and finite element method magnetics (FEMM) researches needed for their development.[15] The proof of concept was validated and the story of Vortex began winning the South Summit Award 2014 in the category of Energy and Industry.
During 2017, the firm kept developing their alternator and tuning system. Since this technology is considered as new in many aspects intervening (geometry, movement, energy conversion system), it has been a harder development than the firm expected. The collaboration on this stage of the Microgravity Institute of the Technical University of Madrid and the European University of Madrid, alongside CDTI, Altair, Birdlife and Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) were the key to obtain a feasible technology that can harness energy from the wind on this particular way. In this year the company obtained the "Innovation SME" seal of the Spanish government.[21]
In 2018, the firm began to plan to industrialize their aerogenerators. At this point, the firm faced many problems due to the lack of feasible industrial production processes to mass-produce some of the pieces that use Vortex technology. The geometry and the materials were almost finalized at this stage, so the firm began a certification process for their current prototypes and obtained the ISO 9001. This certification is a regular process for every wind turbine in the European and American market. The standard is written for bladed and rotary turbines, and may need to be rewritten to certify Vortex devices as wind generators.[citation needed]
The goals of the firm for the future are to obtain the certification needed to start selling, and to set up a feasible method of production and logistics of shipping so they can start commercializing the first Vortex turbines for 2020.[2] They have recently shown performance tests in Puerto Cortés, Honduras.[22]
Most relevant strategic partners for Vortex Bladeless are the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), Altair Engineering, and the Council of Castile and León in Spain.[23] The awards won by the company or their team are all related to energy, innovation, and entrepreneurship,[24][25] listed by date:
Vortex Bladeless is attempting to produce a wind turbine that isn''t actually a turbine. All generators require a magnetic field, a conductor and motion to produce electricity. A small generator can only produce a small amount of power. It takes a lot of energy (movement) to make a generator turn. The biggest are generally turned by massive amounts of falling water, heat, steam or air. There is very little movement in the Vortex "turbine". All the movement at the top doesn''t translate to much down where the generator is. They use a linear generator.[28]
David Yanez, co-founder of the startup Vortex Bladeless, is the inventor of a bladeless wind turbine, a slender vertical and simple piece of machinery that, instead of rotating or spinning, oscillates to collect the kinetic energy of the wind.
He said it transforms that energy into electricity at approximately 30 per cent of the cost of conventional wind energy sources.
"What we want is to try to find a niche that is not properly covered by conventional wind power," Yanez said, standing next to an oscillating 2.75-metre bladeless prototype set up in the countryside near Avila, Spain, where Vortex Bladeless has its base.
"The niche we see could be [the] small wind industry, because the absence of maintenance, no need for oil and the low cost could be the elements that make this idea a useful tool for distributing energy, producing energy close to the point of consumption."
As an engineering student in 2012, Yanez watched a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in Washington state in 1940. He got the inspiration for his invention by seeing the way the ill-fated bridge oscillated in a storm.
Vortex Bladeless was born around 2015, and since then, Yanez and his team have been working to develop the bladeless turbine with the hope of commercializing it.
Their original design has since evolved and currently they are working with prototypes that measure 2.75 metres and 85 centimetres, which are aimed at being used in urban centres.
Vortex Bladeless wind turbines can be used on their own or in conjunction with solar panels.
During the day and when there isn't much wind, solar panels could provide energy. In the evening, when the wind picks up, the bladeless wind turbine could step in to provide energy around the clock, Yanez explained.
"For all those urban centres that do not have as much solar resource as Spain and the whole Mediterranean area, the urban environment seems to fit perfectly with this idea," Yanez said.
It also produces no noise and doesn't require much maintenance compared to traditional wind turbines, he said.
CEO Rodrigo Ruperz said that the company's current prototypes can also be useful in more remote environments.
"We think that there is a niche market that so far has not been developed," Ruperz said, speaking at the University of Salamanca, where a small 85-cm prototype is installed on the roof of one of the buildings.
In the long term, Yanez's hope is that his invention can be used in the offshore wind industry.
"This technology could have an advantage because of the fact it does not have elements that can be rusted by humidity or salt, and maybe this space could be the most suitable for it," he said.
Currently, Vortex Bladeless has five patent families internationally and Yanez estimates that with a suitable investor, they could commercialize their prototypes in 12 to 18 months.
Previous bladeless wind turbine designs have included the Electrostatic Wind Energy Converter from Delft University in the Netherlands and the Aeoleaf "wind tree" from the French firm New World Wind.
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