Company unveils bladeless 'honeycomb' wind turbines -- here's how this super-efficient technology could let clean energy

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/company-unveils-bladeless-honeycomb-wind-220000289.html

Honeycombs have entered the group chat.

No, we’re not talking about Honeycomb Cereal or the honeycombs that bees make. We’re talking about wind turbine honeycombs — Katrick Technologies out of Glasgow, Scotland, has developed a honeycomb-shaped wind turbine that is changing the game in renewable energy.

Katrick Technologies is a startup that describes itself as “focused on innovative engineering technologies by performing energy research and development on eco-friendly concepts for a greener planet.” Despite the company’s startup status, it’s made a significant impact in wind turbine technology already.
snip
Traditional wind turbines — the large ones with the fan rotary at the top — are costly to install and maintain. They require a substantial amount of land as well.

Katrick Technologies has a solution: Their new honeycomb-shaped wind turbines are significantly more compact, making them better suited for urban areas with the capability to sit on already existing buildings and similar structures.

This seems promising.

[patphil]

1. I think these turbines could be used in a lot of applications.

Farms out on the plains, or anywhere there is enough/continual wind could use these to supply their electrical needs, without having to use those giant towers with their huge blades.
When I drove through northern Texas, there were thousands of the old style wind generators stretching across the landscape. Those will still be needed for large scale electrical energy generation, but small scale applications can use these to provide what is needed without the blight on the land that the big bladed towers cause.
Maintenance is also going to be a whole lot easier. I can imagine a whole unit would just be replaced, and any needed repairs could be done in a shop, out of the elements...sort of a plug-in module.
There's definitely a place for these in our clean energy future.

[WhiteTara]

4. we do need more clean energy

thanks for your thoughts on this.

[Disaffected]

2. Or not.

These "new technology" wind "turbines" are a dime a dozen - they appear and disappear never to be heard of again until perhaps some new variant pops up. There is no reason at all to think these things would be any more efficient in any way than conventional wind turbines (typically 3 blade, horizontal axis).

Furthermore, no wind turbines operate well in urban areas, especially those mounted to buildings (the prevailing wind at those conditions is almost always turbulent and low velocity, both of which are highly detrimental to output).

Even Honeywell got into the act a few years ago with a many bladed (more than three blades make no aerodynamic sense) device that was touted for mounting on residential roof-tops and chimneys. All that resulted was low output plus noise & vibration inside the house.

Think of these things as the "free energy" devices that also seem to pop up periodically - snake oil.

[WhiteTara]

3. thanks. The info on city buildings was some

I didn't know. I keep thinking of ways to not kill birds.

[Disaffected]

5. YW

Wind turbines do kill birds and bats unfortunately. Some of these hokey devices have few or no moving parts so are an improvement in that regard but, since they do little to nothing useful, they there's no point in them.

[Old Crank]

10. The real problem with bird kill

is the feral cat population. They take out orders of magnatude more than wind turbines and buildings.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Looks a non-starter to me

They're not "bladeless"; the blades oscillate, rather than rotate. That seems fairly inefficient, and the mass of the surrounding "honeycomb" looks inefficient too (how do they turn to face into the wind?). I'd want to see numbers saying they're more efficient than the same size rotary turbine, and what happens with shifting wind direction.

[Oopsie Daisy]

13. Yes. Being mounted in a stationary position seems to be a big flaw *

* and even if positioned in an optimal direction to capture the prevailing wind from its most common direction, the inability to self-adjust to the best position for optimal efficiency really does appear to be a big drawback.

Also, I wonder what they sound like. The constant random clicky-clack of airfoils that flip and flap and change direction would likely be something that would create great anxiety and annoyance (even more than the steady hum/whoosh of standard wind turbines.) And standard wind turbines are on "farms" that are often far removed from residential areas or office areas.

I doubt that this will become a common sight on neighborhood rooftops or downtown buildings and schools/universities. And with all the stress of flip-flop oscillation, I wonder how often the blades will have to be repaired or replaced.

This seems to me to be a solution in search of a problem.

[mopinko]

7. i've heard it said that big enough wind turbines cd take the punch out of hurricanes.

neil degrasse tyson talks about this. iirc, he said the 3 blade type wouldnt work well, but this looks like what he was talking about. something that rly channeled the air flow. something w a cowl.

[getagrip_already]

8. Here is another innovative alternative to massive bladed towers....

?feature=shared

[Old Crank]

12. This looks like a bigger version of vertical axis turbines.

They have their own problems. One issue is the drag from the upwind side of the turbine. That lowers efficiency. I was thinking of a Verticle asix turbine if I had property. But they have vibration issues and wear becasue of that. This is becasue wind near the ground isn't always a smooth flow. On a building top you introduce noise and vibration to the building.

I don't see how the unit in the OP is going to track wind. Off axis wind flow will be less efficient. Stacked ontop of a building will improve efficiency. Hanign off a wall on a tall building could increase efficiency because fothe ventrui effect between buildings.

It might work well and be good for localized use. Perhaps turntable mounted.

I like to see people thinking about doing something different.

[patphil]

22. Perhaps turntable mounted.

That was one of my first thoughts. Let them rotate to face the wind like the big ones do now.
Also make them modular, so, if one fails, they can easily be swapped out, like computers in a server farm. Broken units would go back to the shop for repair.
I agree that mounting them on buildings may not be ideal, but I don't see them as being used in cities; more of a rural solution where wide open spaces abound.

[Shermann]

21. Asterisk: somebody tried this decades ago and failed

I wish he'd put the asterisks at the beginning of his videos, so I didn't waste so much time on them.

[getagrip_already]

23. Well, to be fair, there is probably a long list

Of tech items that were tried decades ago and failed, but which are now successful.

Sometimes, you have to wait for tech to innovate before solutions can become apparent.

But in this case, it did sound like there is still some solving left to do. No matter. Try, try, try.

[Think. Again.]

9. There's also these...

...Vertical turbines;


https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/vertical-axis-wind-turbines-work-well-together

Or these;


https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/08/10/new-6-bladed-vertical-axis-wind-turbines-can-power-your-off-grid-home-for-30-years-safely/?sh=403802432ba5

As with any new technology (well, new since we stopped using windmills) there will be quite a lot of innovation, development, and re-designing, forever. Cars didn't stop at the Model A, right?

The important part right now is that we get whatever we can up and running as quickly as possible. We can, and will, continue to improve it all once we're well-past the harms of fossil fuels.

[Yavin4]

11. Sorry. But the answer is more nuclear power.

Not only does it reduce emissions, but it disentangles us from the Middle East. Everything bad that has happened and is happening in the Middle East is directly tied to our dependence on oil.

[bagimin]

14. and the nuke waste

goes in whose backyard?

[Yavin4]

19. Recycle the waste.

&t=116s

[Kali]

24. interesting

thanks for posting that video

[Torchlight]

15. Always heartening to see more advances in renewables.

Reduce.
Reuse.
Recycle.
Renew.

[GreenWave]

16. I've noticed this big yellow ball of light in the sky about 8-16 hours some days.

It moves faster than a horse.*
To harness this energy what would happen?
Solar thermal systems covering 10 percent of the world’s deserts — about 1.5 percent of the planet’s total land area — could generate about 15 terawatts of energy, given a total efficiency of 2 percent. This amount is roughly equal to the projected growth in worldwide energy demand over the next half-century.

* I challenged a photon in the center of the sun to a race to a wall. I even waited a week. I touched the wall and won. It turns our light in the center of the sun can stay trapped for a million years or more! Lucky me!

[getagrip_already]

18. I see it every once in a while.....

But it keeps going out. So I'm not sure how reliable it is.

If I were yunga, I'd go with a combination of geothermal and solar. But with a large initial investment and longish payback, I probably won't do it.

[cstanleytech]

17. Honestly though the most effective means of high amounts of energy that is cleaner is still probably nuclear.

Yes, I mean that because despite the chance of an accident happening it appears that mother nature disagrees with us over what amount is unsuitable for life as seen in the area around Chernobyl.
Edit: That does not mean that I would want to live there myself though :-p lol

[Shermann]

20. It seems like one tradeoff with the oscillating wind foils is having to continually overcome static friction nt

[uncle ray]

25. mag lev bearings would fix that.