Hubless Windmill – A New Wind Energy Invention
Wind power is a useful source of clean energy, but it suffers from several shortcomings – not least the fact that the best wind-farm sites tend to be far from the areas that consume the most power.Setting up conventional windmill-style wind turbines in cities is impractical because they need to orientate themselves towards the wind and so require a relatively large amount of space in which to pivot.
Now Sridhar Condoor at Saint Louis University in Missouri has designed a hollow, cylindrical wind turbine that has no central hub. Its tube-like form means the device could be placed around a pre-existing feature such as a chimney stack, cellphone mast or even a tree trunk.The outside of the turbine is a cylinder that is incised with inlets to catch the wind from any direction and toothed on the inside to drive a gear that powers a generator.
A cylindrical frame within allows the main cylinder to rotate freely and can be mounted around another object - either vertically or horizontally. That makes it possible to install without needing clear space, and could even provide a way to hide ugly features, the patent says.
Labels: efficiency, inventions, wind
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