Redefining Wind Energy by Recycling Untapped Sources of Wind in Urban Environments
WHAT IS A VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE (VAWT)?
The Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is a type of wind turbine that is mostly used in urban environments to provide renewable and zero-carbon energy source at home, commercial buildings and city infrastructure like roads, tunnels and other.
This turbine includes the rotor shaft and two, three or five blades where the rotor shaft moves vertically. The electricity generator is placed at the bottom of the rotor
The vertical axis wind turbine working principle is that, the rotors in the turbine revolve around a vertical shaft by using vertically oriented blades. So they generate electricity by using wind power. The wind operates the rotor which is connected to the generator, so the generator converts the energy from mechanical to electrical. Vertical axis wind turbine components are blade, shaft, bearing, frame & blade support.
This design is completely different from the more common Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT), where the blades are attached to the horizontal rotor shaft. The gearbox and other pointing equipment are at the top of the pole.
In a VAWT design, there is no wind positioning mechanisms like tales as the blades are omnidirectional, allowing them to extract energy from wind coming in all directions without needing to reorient the turbine. The VAWT design allows for closer placement so more turbines can be located in the same area as HAWTs.
CO2 Reduction
Reducing carbon emissions to a sustainable level, a.k.a. a net zero carbon footprint.
Transition to EVs
By 2035, no new registration of fuel-propelled vehicles will be allowed in Hong Kong. This transition into EVs requires that the EV Charging Stations and Grid Energy in general need to originate from renewable sources.
It makes no sense to have EVs powered by electricity generated from coal or gas.
High noise pollution
Created by the rapidly spinning wing tips. In a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), the entire wing has a uniform angular velocity, therefore the wing tip has the highest linear velocity. This very high wing tip speed is a source of noise pollution.
Sustainable Energy Generation
By 2050, Hong Kong can substantially increase the proportion of renewable energy in their total energy use. Renewables can make up 60% or more of total final energy consumption.
Good life
We believe that clean and affordable energy is vital for our society to prosper.
Bird fatalities
In spite of the fact that wind technology has a bird fatality rate per GWh of energy produced around 15 times lower than conventional power plants wind farms sited improperly next to rare bird habitats can be a source of tragedy.
The WindCycle Advantages
Recycling Untapped Wind Energy
Power Transmission in-situ:
As the energy is converted from wind to electricity into the grid right in the city electricity poles and urban centers, there is no need to build new and expensive infrastructure for power transmission as in the case of wind farms onshore or offshore that require heavy infrastructure to bring the energy to city centers where the electricity is used.
Vertical turbines always point in the right direction
Compact wind farms
Social Impact
- Lower noise pollution
- Less bird fatalities
- Easily adaptable to urban environments
Lower Costs
The WindCycle concept is based on simplicity. This cuts production costs and maintenance costs to provide WindCycle owners with an attractive and cost-efficient solution.
Innovation & Efficiency
Vertical axis wind turbine technology implementable that is durable and reliable. Almost 30% more energy production per year compared to similar horizontal axis wind turbine under same wind condition.
LCOE
Investment and operational costs reduced compared to horizontal axis wind turbines.
APPLICATIONS
01
Roads & Highways
The passing by vehicles generates local wind speeds that can be converted using Vertical Axis Wind Turbine and the energy sent back into the electricity grid available in the poles.
02
Rooftops: Complementing Solar Panels
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is ideal to be deployed on roofs together with Solar Panels. The reason is that wind turbines can 7×24 generate power, which compensated for the limitation of daytime-only power generating of Solar panels.
03
Tunnels
Another good application of the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is inside the tunnels. Regardless of the weather condition outside, the wind turbine can generate stable power inside a tunnel.
04
MTR & Railways
MTR & Railways could potentially be targets for these kinds of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Like the application on roads and highways, when the train pass by it rotates the wind turbines. Compare with vehicles, train speed is more stable and expected to generate more power.
There are 3 sources of increased airspeed in the tunnels:
A. Natural Bernoulli effect, airspeed accelerates when the surface area decreases (tunnel).
B. Available ventilation systems in the tunnels.
C. Passing by trains inside the tunnels would certainly generate wind speed.
WIND TUNNEL TESTING
Wind turbines same as aircrafts, racing cars and other aerodynamic machines must be tested on wind tunnel for validation of the initial design conditions done by computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Our Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) have gone through the CFD design process and wind tunnel validation, performed at the University with biggest wind tunnel facility in Hong Kong.
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Plasma Actuation for Aerodynamic Efficiency
Dynamic stall control for vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) based on pulsed dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuation, drastically improve aerodynamic efficiency and overall performance of the turbines.