How a Small Wind Turbine Will Revolutionize Wind Energy

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Chapters
00:00 - Intro
01:56 - O-Innovations
02:53 - The Problem
05:33 - Other Companies In Play
07:14 - How The O-Wind Works
08:01 - The Solution?
10:34 - What's Next?

[FastMellow]

3 years ago I bought a 10kW windturbine from AliExpress and it produced a whopping 125 kWh in one year. We have enough solar panels on our roofs to cover most of the year, but at the edge of our garrden there is a small run (stream) that starts running from September/October to about April maybe May, so I created a waterwheel and using a CVT transmission I connected the watersheel to the turbine and last year the construction produced 1700kWh and it generated enough energy in the winter months and in 2023 we pulled 230 kWh from the grid, so far this year we keeping it at zero. I created a funnel which for about 6 feet reduces the width of the stream with 60%, making the water flow faster which is probably why we're still at 0 and we have the added benefit that unlike a traditional windturnbine, our waterwheel turbine is not visible from the yard which I think is a big advantage...

[RussellFineArt]

I worked in the small wind industry for many years, have seen dozens of designs, some very similar to this omnidirectional one, and they all cost far more than solar and produce far less energy and result in being a rip off. I’ve owned a Skystream small wind turbine in my yard, for the past 17 years and sold over 2, 000 of them around the world. There’s just not enough consistent wind at low elevations to make them worth it, which is why every one of them say they’re still in development, ie, they’re getting investment money from suckers, and thin on details like energy production and price. Even large, utility turbines are struggling to compete with utility solar on price, availability, energy production and speed of development to COD. I work in the utility solar industry, I’ve crunched the numbers a thousand times, stick with solar + battery storage.

[jayducharme]

For the past three years, I've had a small Savonius-style turbine on my shed to provide power there, alongside a single solar panel. I'm very happy with how it's worked out. On cloudy and windy days, the turbine charges the batteries in the shed. On calm sunny days, the solar panel takes over. With an inverter, I can power electric yard tools, charge tool batteries, etc. I'm not running a refrigerator or heating system. But for the small tasks I need, that system does the job.

[icare]

Here in the Broadmoor Area in Colorado Springs there was an artist who took Omni directional wind power and turned it into moving metal art sculptures silently powered by the wind. They are mesmerizing and incredibly intricate and beautiful.

[winterrye]

Pittsburgh resident here. We have some of the worst solar potential in the states with more cloud cover than Seattle but Solar just eeks out being cost effective in some niche cases. We get as much city wind as any comparable urban area. Here's hoping the economics of this work out. The burgh is probably one of the best regional cases for wind making sense over solar

[hughbrommage]

Bring it on. More in the mix the merrier. Great concept. Low maintenance is the key

[paxdriver]

Aww this is so awesome! I drafted a concept for this a couple years ago I'm so glad someone designed one and built a better design! It's so neat to see an idea in your head working and testing.

[anguscampbell]

This could be used in conjunction with a friction heater to supply heat in cold climates. This would enable a lower cost installation than generating electricity with a generator, inverter and wiring as well as batteries to store the electricity. Essentially the turbine turns a friction heater which can heat up a water (or oil if freezing is a concern) reservoir in a tank and a heat pump could extract that water as needed. The heat pump could alternate between the ambient air or the reservoir as needed. Producing energy doesn't necessarily mean producing electricity. A friction heater is easy and cheap to build and easily replaced when worn.

[djwarner]

Back in the Jimmy Carter days I did a preliminary engineering wind energy evaluation for the Chicago area. The gross wind energy available at first indicated sufficient energy for the technology of the day. There were periods when the wind speeds exceeded the safe velocity for the mechanisms and a safety device would feather the windmill. Unfortunately, the 7% of the time when the safety mechanisms were in effect accounted for more than 50% of the annual energy expected. The next problem occurred when examining a windmill parameter called its solidity. If a windmill had a 100% solidity, the windspeed after going through the windmill would fall to zero - and effectively pile up downwind. A solidity factor had to be significantly lower for maximum efficiency. Say the windspeed drop after passing the windmill might be 70-80%. So only 20-30% of the lower energy winds could be effectively captured. This required upsizing a single family windmill beyond the space available on a typical home's plot.

[svOcelot]

We live on our sailing catamaran (s/v Ocelot). Electricity is always a big issue, as we have to make all that we use.
But characterizing it as XX KWh/month if your winds average YY knots (as you did in this video) is slanted, because the higher gusts contain much higher energy. You can't divide that by time to get accurate W/windspeed.
What we want is: How many Watts will it produce in YY knots of wind? No averaging over time. Just a curve of Watts vs Windspeed.
Unfortunately, a 2m sphere is pretty large for a sailboat. We'd probably be more interested in something closer to 4', or 1.2m. Yes, I know that won't give as much performance, but our needs are commensurately smaller.

[jaypeltz]

I’m disappointed in this article.
Any wind machine has performance curve. At different wind speeds it produces X watts. The power of wind goes up at the cube of the speed.
All SWT’s or vertical axis wind machine companies never produce the actual curves only estimates.
If he was serious he would show us and you the actual power outputs in many different wind speeds. Also he has the turbine out in an open field which is perfect for good performance. How does it do next to or on buildings etc.
It’s not a serious product because he doesn’t show the performance output data.

[flux_inverter]

A lot of good ideas out there for wind power. Just waiting for them to come to market and have acceptable power output. I live in a flat area, but with constant wind that changes directions, and something like this could be useful. Downside is wind speed can get high so it needs to handle high winds.

[ShuRugal]

the O-wind looks like an excellent candidate for a flat-pack self-assembly kit. the turbine appears to be made of very simple repeating shapes which could be made from pre-cut sheet metal and assembled with simple tools. That would leave the generator and power delivery electronics as the most expensive component.

It would be really cool to see this thing sold at several pricing tiers:

1 - "full service" - work with a local installer for the installer to provide and install a factory-built unit with all the bells and whistles
2 - "some assembly" - same full-featured kit as the "full service" version, but shipped as discrete subassemblies, with the turbine itself arriving in flat-pack form for the customer to install or arrange independent assembly/installation (say, from a general contractor)
3 - "turbine-only, assembly required" - just the turbine unit, in flat pack form, with a collet adapter to attach to a generator shaft. customer supplies own generator and control system.

[helenab]

I studied this a few years ago at university.
These devices are not for open spaces (as seen in some examples in the film) but for spaces close to the walls of buildings. Air is always circulating, and when it encounters a barrier (wall) it compresses, accelerates and changes direction. There is a small strip of space next to the walls where the air circulates faster (+/- where in the old buildings you could see the clothes drying).
If they were economical enough to be able to cover the vertical walls in the direction of the prevailing winds, it could be a great solution. (If it were me, I would suggest adding a condenser in the direction of the prevailing wind)

[ian]

should release a 3d printable version (small) to maintain interest. If you can see it spinning yourself it helps.

[jeffkilgore]

If one turbine produces anywhere near 5k, then for many US homes, that's nearly 50%, which seems worthwhile.

[WumbologyPHD]

You really kept shortening "small wind turbines" to SWTs, which just adds a syllable

[eliinthewolverinestate]

I like the idea of small scale wind. Vs the huge looming turbines I see locally. But small scale can make unwanted noise.

[alklesczewski]

There is actually another use case for these and that is on the shore. They are compact enough and look "artsy" enough to line the boardwalk, or other areas near where people actually walk. I was at Cape Cod this summer and there seemed to be winds blowing all day long!

[danielnunezdn]

I think it would be a more productive turbine rotating on three axes like the axes of a cardan shaft, with magnetic and liquid bearings. Some more challenges during the design and commercialization stage. I also like the idea that Orellana used, it is excellent. I also think that it will be one of the first turbines for homes combined with solar energy. Consider whether it is convenient to use more than one O-Wind turbine of different sizes, separately or concentrically. There are many challenges, the beginning of a journey begins with the first step. My best wishes to all the O-Wind staff.