Why you haven't seen these wind turbines around (yet)

While we've grown accustomed to seeing solar panels on rooftops, what about wind turbines? Are they destined to be overshadowed by their bigger counterparts? What challenges are hindering the implementation of small-scale wind turbines and what are possible solutions for more wind power for the people?

#planeta #smallwindpower #verticalwindpower

Credits:
Reporter: Monika Sax
Video Editor: Neven Hillebrands
Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Michael Trobridge

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

Author would like to thank the following people for research support and background information:

Alina Wilke, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Michael Bergey, World Wind Energy Association, Small Wind Section
Dr. Galih Bangga, University of Stuttgart
Dr. Adel Ayad Younis, The Australian University (AU)
Roman Rudnik, German Wind Energy Association

Read more:

Outlook for the industry:

Current status and grand challenges for small wind turbine technology:

Chapters:
00:00 Does small stand a chance?
1:24 Pros and cons of small wind turbines
2:06 Horizontal vs. vertical
3:06 Advantages of vertical wind turbines
4:31 Challenges of the small-scale
6:25 Where and how could small wind power make it?

[MrArtist]

I sold over 2, 000 small wind turbines over several years of working in the industry and have had a 2.4kW Skystream in my backyard for the past 15-years, powering my own home, and I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a small wind turbine unless you can get it very cheap and install it yourself as the ROI is VERY long, much longer than solar PV. The VAWT's produce such tiny yields, and cost more than HAWT's so they're almost never worth the price. My solar panels far, far outproduce my small wind turbine and they make no noise and require no maintenance, and were much cheaper.

[lawrenceheyman]

I remember being told 15 years ago solar power will never be viable because it costs too much.
It doesn't seem likely that small wind will improve at the same rate as solar or even big wind. However, it seems worth exploring

[al_caponeh]

Fun fact: For my final thesis project that i'm doing with my peer, I'm going for a three blade Darrieus type H rotor VAWT. To be more concrete my study is focused on the optimization of the profile of the turbine.
I'm starting in two weeks.

[Zemaj]

I live permanently aboard my sailing boat, equipped with an extensive range of electrical and electronic equipment. Solar panels and a wind turbine easily keep my house and engine crank battery banks fully charged, except rarely during prolonged periods of windless heavily overcast days.

[tsubasa]

I remember seeing these smaller (vertical) wind turbines next to the river in Taipei over 10 years ago. I thought it was a brilliant way to fit wind turbines into a very compact city. They were very nice looking and in no way destroyed the view when you where walking next to the river. Sadly, I haven't seen this anywhere in Europe

[DWPlanetA]

Have you seen any of these or other small turbines around?

[xqwztpz]

In the USA an alternative energy initiative was begun by the federal government during the Gerald Ford administration, around 1975. NASA designed a Darrius
vertical mill with extruded aluminum foils, and there was significant interest in experimental designs through at least the mid 1980s. A study done (ca 1990) by a German university professor pointed out that with all vertical windmills, there is a larger amount of material used for the area of exposure to the stream of wind (more material = more capex). To my knowledge, no vertical mills have demonstrated sufficiently improved power output to justify the cost of these
designs. In addition, the vertical mills pass the airfoils through the 'wake' of the leading airfoil; this means generally increased audible noise, and certainly
increased mechanical WEAR. Fatigue wear of the airfoils was discovered in the initial deployment of Darrius turbines.

It is true that in certain applications there may be some use of vertical mills ... but it remains to be seen if they will be economically viable.
When fuel costs peak or environmental concerns arise, there has been increased entrepreneurial interest in these designs. Rigorous, real-world
testing should be done to prove concepts have real ROI value.

[dutch]

One interesting vertical turbine installation was in Turkey I think where they put them in the median barrier of a motorway and as such captured the "wind" generated by traffic, and as it was in the median it gets "pushed" from both sides as the traffic is going in opposite directions

[hananas]

Here in Belgium, in rural areas I've started to see these small horizontal turbines popping up with wooden blades. I haven't looked around much yet but I've seen 3 so far and heard of a few more in the area. One of them is unfortunately right in front of my mother's house, and makes a quite annoying noise even when there's only a bit of wind.
We're talking about a very small area as well, less than 10km across.

[faultier]

You pretty much skipped on the reason why most newly built wind turbines nowadays are massive. How many small turbines would you need to replace even one big one? How does the cost per kwh compare between them? How steady is the output (on a small and a larger scale)? I had hoped that the video would cover that, because those are exactly the reasons why small turbines are an extremely rare niche thing right now.

[erikgore]

I was the head of operations at a VAWT start-up. The cost of installation is insane.

[AHD]

That field if wind mills looks like it would be hell for birds.

[ehsnils]

I would consider a construction where you build a large tray that could take up the swing and plant a fast growing tree in that tray. Then when the wind comes and is caught by the tree then you can catch some of that energy. It won't be a fast direct measurable yield from it, but it could probably be easy to make and useful in areas where it's more important to be cheap. Then let the swing operate pumps for water.

[Ocelot-ngjb]

I saw these being tested at my college back in 2015, it was taken down due to friction issues I think. I don't know if it was a study done by the college or an engineering class, we did have a field of solar panels next to the building to help power it.

[CosmicParadiseOfficial]

As someone who is currently paying off land in an area that gets sun throughout most of the year and lots of wind. I definitely plan to make use of harnessing both once im done paying it off and can build some structures

[Planet_Cents]

It is not only energy efficient but thinking of the less space requirement and safety for the birds is of big importance. Amazing innovation

We will like to add this to our main Planet Cents playlist to inspire more people. ~Team PlanetCents

[tHebUm]

That tumbleweed inspired one seems really neat if it could be scaled up. In the end, small scale wind is a hard sell compared to solar because the need for moving parts inherently increases cost and reduces reliability.

[emilyarchibald]

My old college put a vertical turbine on the roof of the new science center it built.

[JoeyBlogs]

5:08 is extremely interesting. Multi directional wind turbine concept.

[steveread]

As I understand it, the Taj Mahal uses wind to cool the interior.

The Taj is made of white marble, a cold material, that has narrow slits cut into the walls. The interior of the slits are more narrow than the outside causing wind to speed up as it passes through & so, cool down.
Giving 17th century airconditioning.