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Discussing current issues in engineering

Bladeless Wind Machines Diversify Renewable Energy Generation

4/30/2021

 
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Photo credit: Unknown, CC BY 2.0
Wind accounts for the highest percentage of renewable energy generation in the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 8.4% of all electricity produced in the U.S. is derived from wind energy. In 2020, wind accounted for 43% of renewables-based electricity generation—5% more than hydropower and more than ten times the combined electricity yields of biomass, solar, and geothermal energy.

Electricity-generating wind turbines have occupied scattered spaces in the U.S. electricity landscape since their initial conception in the late nineteenth century. When oil shortages in the 1970s forced a reevaluation of the nation’s energy environment, federally funded research and development brought wind turbines into the mainstream.

Despite more than a century of use, the design of electricity-generating wind turbines has remained relatively unchanged. Now, Spain-based tech startup Vortex Bladeless is refreshing the traditional means of wind energy generation with a wind machine that forgoes the defining characteristics of a turbine.

Vortex’s wind machine is a modular, on-site wind energy generator without blades or rotating parts. The machine is comprised of a cylindrical body surrounding a central support that is anchored to the ground. Its ability to generate energy relies on a principle of fluid dynamics called called vortex shedding.

Vortex shedding occurs when fluids (like water or air) flow past a blunt body, creating alternating vortices at the back of the body that detach to form a “vortex street.” When wind passes through the blunt body, the cylinder oscillates toward the alternating low-pressure vortices and subsequently triggers a coil-and-magnet alternator system attached to the central support. Through this process, wind energy becomes mechanical energy becomes electrical energy. In action, the vortex machine resembles one prong of a struck tuning fork rather than the pinwheel shape of a turbine.

Vortex Bladeless launched initial manufacturing with a first series of Vortex Nano devices measuring in at 85 centimeters tall. The company has plans to manufacture generators in a variety of sizes in order to meet site-specific needs. Next on the list is the Vortex Tacoma: a 2.75-meter-tall generator weighing less than 15 kilograms with the capacity to generate 100w. Product features like variable sizing, a light weight, and a low center of gravity hold promise for the wind machine’s ability to occupy a variety of settings, whether rural hilltops or skyscraper railings.  

Click here to read more about electricity generation in the United States. For more on the Vortex Bladeless wind machine, click here.

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