Insane New Turbine Promises CHEAP Unlimited Energy

#AD - Find out more about the incredible AMD Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series Processors here: amd.chrd.ly/Ziroth
This strange looking turbine caught my attention as I was scrolling through the news. It is by a company called TouchWind and used a single large blade. Not only that, but it tilts up and down depending on the wind speeds. The idea is for it to be used in offshore settings, with some incredible plans for how it could work. They are aiming to significantly reduce the costs of off shore wind energy, and maybe one day to compete with onshore wind and solar energy. To get to the bottom of this turbine, I spoke with engineers at TouchWind, as well as industry experts.
Sources:
touchwind.org/
magazine.marin.nl/marin-repor...
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - System Overview
3:50 - The Big Idea
6:30 - Will It Work?
9:20 - Cost Predictions
#Engineering #Breakthrough #Wind

[@ZirothTech]

What do you guys think about this turbine? I'm interested in all your thoughts! Also, check out the incredible AMD Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series Processors here: amd.chrd.ly/Ziroth #ad

[@juliane__]

Maybe in 20 years we will deploy them in the open ocean. If fusion doesn't take of, this will be the most abundant energy form we can get decades later.

[@VeniceInventors]

I'm not convinced that this design is all that great. Maybe it is more cost effective than the existing offshore turbine but it's not really impressive. If stronger winds can be harnessed at higher elevation, it may be better to focus on bringing the windmill up, using a wing/kite holding an array of turbines? As an added bonus it would automatically lift the turbines out of harm's way when stronger winds bring rough waters. If only I had a Threadripper CPU to run some simulations ;-)

[@noway8563]

What about those chains that anchor them to the ocean floor? Won't they kill some whales?

[@typxxilps]

2:16 - if this video is meant to be watched by the average viewer use please use the units the average people are familiar with. Ask you grandma what a speed of 10 m/s would mean and if 32 m/s is fast or not, ask for their impression and not a recalculation. I have a feeling what 100 km / h means cause you can open a cars window and put you hand in the air flow. But I would need to do the math to get behind m/s which would mean 27 m/s If you would have use 115 km / h instead of 32 m/s I would have had a better feeling and even better for the 259 km / h instead of 72 m/s If the turbine is any good the first investor who had bought the product will buy thousands more if the costs are lower, maintenance and investments are lower and the equation of production is better than the current ones. I would not invest in any of shore thing soon which is that different cause it tooks us ages to get where we are right now and none of those are floating. And the floating topic adds another point of complexity like the cable tied connection to the under sea grid. Just one of the differences where difference means a potential risk or challenge compared to the current ones. Many have lost fortunes to get where we are. And you might now german engineering quite well, so maybe it is time for you to take a lesson in history or engineering history if you are able to unsolve the shattered dreams of scientist who had gotten a government funding by germany to build one of the first big wind turbines for commercial use, even though for todays scale it might feel like a tiny one. Fully funded it went into a complete desaster within weeks rather than months. Search for "GROWIAN" or "GRO WI AN" an acronym for "Groß Windkraft Anlage" or big scale wind turbine. This was the biggest failure and desaster for german wind turbine production cause the turbine never achieved any of the designed goals and was only good as an example how to not develope such product. Therefore the float one has to proof a lot more than just 1 rotor running under ideal circumstances close to shore (for easy repairs) for just months or a couple of years cause the investments needed are so big that these have to last 2 decades and more to be profitable. And that is the real challenge for any new tech to outperform the previous financially and reliable over a full product life cycle and even beyond considering how easy it could be to repower such site after 20 years of usage.

[@pathfollower]

I would be curious if floating turbine bases could double as wave energy generators.

[@mavigogun]

Projects that haven't been built are infinitely less costly than stuff that exists in the real world. True fact.

[@bosatsu76]

Big deal... Sitting in a mudhole while doing nothing is the cheapest way to live... Do that then... We're moving on...

[@comfortablynumb9342]

Not investing in new tech means spending infinity doing the same thing without advancing. It's not good to be a Luddite.

[@markfeeer2149]

Yeah thats a fact but if they do manage to make it work. It seems to be less comples than traditional turbines. If its generates similar amount of energy per investment dollar its worth it. And it possibly can do more as it suppose to have more uptime.

[@BrianHurry]

Yep.

[@thePavuk]

Disagree. You can waste more money to useless Case study or Theoretical project then on physical proof of concept.

[@RiverMersey]

Define "one"! As a non-engineer, I'd say that design is an asymmetrical duel-blade rotor Plus, everything looks great in CGI - do we have a real-life model?

[@ZirothTech]

I think its referring to the single unit that it is formed from, which they say helps reduce manufacturing costs. Lots of footage of their prototypes in the video! I agree though - CGI always looks easier than reality!

[@markthomasson5077]

@@ZirothTechso a single piece two blade rotor to be precise

[@chazc7115]

It is symmetrical though💀

[@seneca983]

I don't think it's asymmetrical. It just looks asymmetrical because of perspective in some of these animations.

[@decvoid261]

@@ZirothTech One piece compared to 3 separate blades, a hub and a whole lot of gears and motors to change the blade pitch.

[@amzarnacht6710]

A - How does it self-orient if it's offset from its point of anchor? B - How does it sustain high waves with the turbine in a vertical orientation? That's going to be a LOT of vertical movement shoving and jerking on the generator body. C - The could increase the power generation by putting wave energy accumulators along the anchoring structure.

[@viviancrompton1920]

One interesting aspect with this design is that high wind loads will be putting the tower in tension , rather than pushing it sideways with a cantilever force, so you can have a much more lightweight tower structure, as steel is excellent at resisting tension but needs a lot more engineering to resist a cantilevering force.

[@nickwinn7812]

? so there will be no force perpendicular to the tower in high winds? the tower will be sailing along at the wind speed if your analysis is correct. The tower must hold the rotor against the wind, therefore there will be bending forces on the tower. (described by you as "cantilevering force"). The "engineering" as you describe it, for steel to resist bending forces is well understood and not at all a technical challenge. Interesting that you assume the tower will be built from steel and steel alone. An assumption that ought to be challenged.

[@EPeltzer]

One of the most exciting aspects of this design is ease of assembly and maintenance. Being able to attach and assemble the entire rotor and generator near the surface of the water is huge. And then being able to just pull it down again to work on it. But now you say they are looking at more conventional flotation platforms. It would be a pity to lose disability to rotate it up and down for service.

[@_larkin_321]

The new base seems to be more about housing a rotation axis for the tilt than removing the variable tilt (it is the main feature after all) while being more stable in waves.

[@drillerdev4624]

@@_larkin_321 To sum up, I'd say is about addressing real life problems as opposed to lab conditions.

[@zazugee]

as someone who did math/homework estimating wind turbine prodution on my location, i want to correct some stuff i noticed on wind frequency it's not that majority of power is produced on slow winds, it's the wind speed frequency, low winds could be just junk energy and won't give much, anything below 10~5m/s range is junk energy production, definitly high winds are better for energy production, but because they have less frequency then they can't rely on them for constant energy production, but some wind farms definity will disconnect some percentage of the wind farm to keep the energy stable, but above a certain speed most wind turbines that are optimized to spin at certain high frequency mid-range speeds won't be efficient and could spin out of control, so they are disabled so this wind turbine design looks promising in theory, but as pointed out, it's yet have to be seen if the design can handle sea water, swells and waves.

[@SamusUy]

I didn't understood that chart, it seemed like a probability distribution of the different speeds but the Y axis has values up to 0.09 are all those values supposed to add up to one? as in 100%

[@kazedcat]

The most interisting is their tensigrity column design. That is the design that could save a lot of cost.

[@bojangles2492]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="59">0:59</a> Those pencil drawings are lit.

[@erlannalan]

Damn, got to promote AMD congrats broo.

[@ZirothTech]

Thanks man, I couldn't believe it either!

[@RiverMersey]

Yes, this is the first yt channel I've seen with such in video promotion of AMD!👍

[@ULTR4_DEV]

i was shocketh

[@HunterCadre]

Really appreciate that you reached out to an expert! These sort of videos become way more interesting when there's a bit of qualified discussion and not just promo material

[@a64738]

There is 1000 of these companies making CGI videos and harvesting government money and then they run, away with the money... Until they have demonstrated it works with actual full scale windmill consider it to be a scam, because the chance is 99% that it is.

[@franks4973]

It’s an asymmetrical 2 blade rotor, add a gimbal at bottom to point away from the direction of wind and use on land or water.

[@macrumpton]

I think it's actually symmetrical, it just looks that way in some of the images. I think the shape is straight rotor with the tips bent back from the direction of rotation.

[@jeffjwatts]

"and use on land or water." It looks like it's too short to be used on land. At least without a much taller pole to get it above ground turbulence.

[@q.e.d.9112]

I think it actually points into the wind. This is what causes it to lift itself up as the wind speed increases. If it was pointing away from the wind, then increasing wind strength would knock it over rather than up. The idea has appeal, but as with all modern technology the devil is in the detail. I see stability as the major issue. At high wind speed the rotor is acting like an auto gyro. The “lift” this produces will be acting downwards along the pylon. Balancing this, while still allowing the freedom of movement needed for the device to track the wind, will be a hard nut to crack, IMO. I’ll be interested to see if this concept progresses further. Fingers crossed!

[@decvoid261]

As long as it could swivel to face the wind if on land, where there is that weight beneath the rotor on water, on land, it could be a variable tether, producing electricity in the same way as a kite generator does.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

​@@q.e.d.9112Yeah it definitely looks like it is supposed to point towards the main direction of the wind. Yet how they going to manage that when ocean wind is so chaotic? I get the appeal. Cheaper, even if it isn't even ideal design. The great thing about green energy is that the sun and earth over produce! Effiency doesn't really matter if you can make a ton more.

[@criticalevent]

Being able to handle high winds without using brakes or computer pitch control would eliminate most of the catastrophic failures we've seen on 3 blade turbines and all of the downtime we see when these systems need to be serviced.

[@kennethferland5579]

I think a Brake mechanism will still be needed to safe servicing, though It might need to be less beefy if it's only used in that context rather then in response to high wind.

[@Shaun.Stephens]

@@kennethferland5579 I think you mean a spindle lock. Brakes are for slowing things down but a spindle lock is just for stopping things turning and is infinitely cheaper.

[@traian2041]

m/s is for someone working in the industry. In layman's terms put the value in km/h so the rest of us can understand it without pausing the video to translate it.

[@joostschure4190]

I think its a good system to harvest the mechanical energy for appliences, because the direction is already in a vertical position. With some automotive parts of a differential, the windmill can swing around and still give propulsion in your desired direction. 72 m/s is such fast, its a great idea.

[@Pystro]

I'm dubious about the claim that reducing the wind wake can "suck in" fast air from above the wind farm. The slow air still has to go somewhere, contrary to what the graphic at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="538">8:58</a> suggests. At best you can spread it out to 5 times as wide and 1/5th as high as the blade disk of the wind turbine or so. Yes, it will help in the case where the next turbine downwind is _exactly_ in the path of another turbine, but now it will actually reduce wind speeds when the next turbine is within that 5 blade disk wide wake, making wake problems 5 times as likely to happen. And after 5 consecutive turbines have sucked in and spread out the wake, you're back to about the same wake height as before. But maybe this is just a cost saving measure as well. 5 times as likely wake effects of 1/5th the strength will reduce the _maximum_ dynamic load from wake turbulence to 1/5th. I just wonder if wake turbulence adds that much of a load compared to natural air turbulence in rough seas.

[@Barskor1]

Ground effect lift think about it.

[@AdvantestInc]

Brilliantly done! Your ability to simplify and highlight the key aspects of the Mono turbine’s design makes this video a valuable resource for anyone interested in renewable energy.

[@user-ny2bx8ez1c]

Jam packed with a lot of very innovative ideas. I hope it works out & they produce 1,000s of them.

[@lucianoag999]

One big reason of why rotors usually have three blades is the constant inertia to rotate around the vertical axis. With two blade it rotates easier when they are vertical as when they are horizontal. That causes some issues. Also making a 200 m blade is more complex than 100m ones to have the same diameter. I think it is just paper ware.

[@57greyghost]

Precisely ! Side Load on the shaft will be on again , off again due to wind gradient . Much fatigue going to happen . Also gyroscopic load of a large spinning mass trying to bob about . Not going to work .

[@davidking5765]

First impressions - looks a good idea - interested in updates.

[@dodgygoose3054]

That would really well at the edge of building roof as it would catch the current then deflect it back under the blades. Brilliant system.

[@33rorynoah]

Sounds like a brilliant idea, However, A huge part of the cost of offshore wind turbines is the infrastructure needed to get the electricity back on shore. If these turbines are going to be situated much further off shore then the cables will be much longer so more likely to suffer damage

[@tomhitchcock1261]

Thanks.. great idea. another advantage is no thub thub from the blades passing the tower. I like that it bows to the sea and wind. I am wondering if you put this on top of a boat mast and drove an underwater propeller, how fast would it go in various wind directions and speeds. would recommend a more pinnate prop to reduce drag where there no torque produced. I would also consider using sail cloth for the wing to reduce cost, weight and ease of replacement. Keep up the good work.

[@holski77]

blades on large turbines already get pretty high mach at the tips. I wonder if at high wind speeds this could have issues with the advancing rotor breaking the sound barrier when the winds are high, it's at its max rpm, and the blade is near horizontal.

[@michaelmetternich6350]

Geniale Idee, als Hanggleiter- und Paragleiterpilot und Elektroniker sehe ich den Nutzen, die Genialität und Entwicklungsfähig und Verfeinerung Möglichkeit des Gedankens sehr gut. Bravo👍

[@ZirothTech]

Es klingt, als ob das sehr deinen Interessen entspricht! Danke.

[@michaelmetternich6350]

@@ZirothTech Ja, absolut, das Thema hat Potential und stellt eine interessante, vermutlich billigere und montagefreundlichere Alternative zu den Wendrädern für mich dar. Vermutlich ergibt sich weiters zur Unterstützung eines umfweltfreundlicheren Schiffsantrieb.

[@nealkonneker6084]

I read an article that suggested that most wind turbines are designed with 3 blades for individual efficiency but that a better design would consider the whole system and favor economics. The 3 blade design is useful for only a narrow range of wind speeds and is even at risk in high wind speeds. It was proposed that a smaller multi blade design with an outer ring although in theory less efficient per blade would be cheaper to make and produce more electricity since it can handle slower and higher wind speeds.

[@aktab9]

Nowadays everything on KZbin is going to be revolutionary. 😅

[@jeffk412]

My GOD man! you have revolutionized the comments section! 😉

[@concon1962]

Çünkü bilim halka indi, KZbin sayesinde… fakat bir dezavantajı var, derinlemesine gözlemlemeyen ve yorumlamayan birey, olayı çözdüğünü sanıp hemen KZbin’a bir şeyler yüklüyor…😢

[@SemourKlitz]

I think wind turbines are a marvelous piece of engineering since these have been in use for centuries in the form of Dutch windmills. But the trend of making these ever more complex and gargantuan in size is ridiculous. Better to make thousands of inexpensive turbines like these than tens of super expensive, difficult to assemble & maintain units.

[@Barskor1]

The blads can compress the air flow to the surface and with a staggered array direct a more homgious flow to the next set of WTs.

[@Etheoma]

Okay, but how are you getting the energy on shore from far off shore, thats the biggest cost in offshore and moving it further out would increase that cost.

[@lucasdeaver9192]

I was recently near a wind farm in Vermont and surprised as to how loud they are. Like distant rumbling trains and swooshing of the blades. I wouldn't want to live near one and I'm sure the wildlife isn't happy about it either.

[@tedwalford7615]

With simplicity come so many different kinds of advantages. Even if less efficient at lower elevations, the savings in the overall cost should more than make up for it.

[@jameskazmarek8102]

Makes a lot of sense to me. Does the wake effect offer an added benefit of cooling the ocean surface? Would be easy to test. Put some thermometers' in the water where the downdraft is most intense. As the angle of attack changes the thermometers could be spooled in or out on a tether keeping them in the sweet spot. Also, encouraging corals and sea life to congregate on the submerged components is a huge bonus.

[@patrickmckowen2999]

Very innovative - would love to see some hard cost numbers and some realworld testing . Cheers

[@antonhuman8446]

Looks most interesting. Bearing torque control needs brains a lot more than I have. Thanks!

[@chrisconklin2981]

Great Idea. My concern is that weight on a cable. I have visions of that weight swinging around in heavy weather.

[@Pystro]

The weight is going to be under water, or at least partially under water. It should be pretty well damped against sideways swings. I'd be more worried that waves would push/pull on the weight and swing the mast to beyond vertical (at which point it will tip over).

[@duncanidaho9153]

@@Pystro Buoyancy of the weight (its overall SG) will be one of the variables to play with. No reason the winch couldn't be dynamic - if only for heavy sea conditions the cyclic loading would be reasonable over lifetime. A dynamic winch might also be able to help with broadside stability, allowing the turbine lift to assist with righting.

[@mikecawthorn7806]

Tks for that interesting works in motion, no study is a waste of time and knowledge learnt from this exercise maybe of use.

[@robertcoutts926]

Real wind shifts back and forth 15 degrees or so ... wind tunnels can't simulate that. This is how a gyroplane operates but it needs high wind speeds.

[@filonin2]

Yeah, it'd be impossible to put the model in the wind tunnel on a table that can turn back and forth. Some things man wasn't meant to know.

[@es1951]

interesting concept- but more complex than vertical fixed turbine, also the gyroscopic effect should be calculated when moving up or down because it will add additional forces

[@alphonsobutlakiv789]

I've built barrel ships, barrels float good, I feel like these should be rings, not because I think it'll make more power, but I think it will be safer, in the case they tip too low. That way they don't slap and smack, they slide and roll, and should for the same tipping reason, have floatation in the ring.

[@donaldekhoff7999]

This makes a lot of sense to me. Bravo

[@mr_q_02]

Interesting idea. I think they're wildly overestimating their cost reduction, but 8% seems entirely plausible. And that's before considering the added benefits of 1) not ripping itself apart in storms and 2) potentially generating some energy there. That makes it already worth it (assuming they can ensure it doesn't fall over, which seems like a relatively easy issue to solve). The wake thing is gravy; it's a cool bonus, but the ocean is vast so it's not that important of a metric.

[@alanwhiplington5504]

The sea is a harsh mistress. Weather conditions can be extreme and need not be frequent to be destructive. What would happen if a spinning rotor were knocked down and hit the water? I suspect the rotors would need to be cheap enough to be considered occasionally disposable.

[@s.m.aggies7220]

I always enjoy new technology, will be happy for the future results

[@kramselab]

Instead of a barrel float, why not a spherical shaped float? It seems it would provide more stability as well as survivability in cross-wave situations.

[@trelligan42]

Mono's monoblade is a radical idea, and the tilt-up to reduce effects of high winds is genius. No movable blade elements to harvest and prevent destruction during high winds alone is a strong economic incentive to try this out at scale. If I knew where to sent it, I'd send money to this project-if I had money. 🤒

[@oscaroscar5336]

an off shoot might be to have the blades stall and then have the mechanism dip and then harness the engery of the dipping motion as well. OR fluctuate the blade angle to create more lift and less lift and create a bobbing motion to harness.

[@tackyinbention6248]

Ive seen autogyros do their thing and they spin fast. Seems like a nice idea and they have a small demonstrator which already puts them ahead of many cgi video companies

[@Devo491]

The inevitable encounter with the legendary 'rogue wave' will test this device. Rogue waves are simply the random concurrence of all the wave and swell components at a given point, and are far more common than freakish. And, of course, a three-bladed arrangement enjoys fundamental balance advantages, which grow exponentially as speed increases.

[@en2oh]

It seems that the clever tilt system will become considerably more complicated when the barrel base is replaced by the square base. Did they comment on that?

[@MMPowerCafe]

I appreciate all new designs that utilize Nature's clean infinite energies. If only everyone had sufficient amounts of constant wind. But where it exists, the power of intermittent wind must be paired with sufficient storage and distribution, which will add costs. I can see some possible problems with stability/longevity with this design which can only be properly addressed with several linked working demonstration models out on the real waves.

[@henrycarlson7514]

Interesting , Thank You . I really hope it works , and is efficent

[@tomduke1297]

reminds me a bit of the really efficient asymmetrical rotorblades for drones that reduce noise by a lot. anyways, im just a sucker for passive functionality, that thing can turn into the wind and manage its blades pitch without any motors or computers and sensors and crap. its a winner in my book. on land you could even put the generator at the bottom and just have an axle running up to the top, meaning you would have hardly any weight at the top.(relatively speaking) honestly... im pretty sure i could build something like that behind my house. just a steel frame, rotor on top, generator on the bottom, having it articulate and rotate at the bottom is the hard part, but hardly impossible. man, i cant wait for retirement, there are so many concepts i want to play around with.

[@seneca983]

I think it's symmetric.

[@richardservatius5405]

with waves the floating barrel might go under water or move around loosely. put a generator on the anchor cable to produce more energy.

[@plinble]

Floating wind has so much potential and there's so much work to be done. A stormy sea is tremendous at smashing stuff up and this was the end of wave power snakes.

[@nickwinn7812]

"Floating wind" really? is there more than one type of wind - like maybe sinking wind? why has no-one told me this before?

[@MultiSteveB]

I have to wonder if we are about to see a transition from vertical-mast, 3-bladed turbines to variable-angle tilted masts with a 2-blade turbine - akin to how aviation shifted away from biplanes to monoplanes once the technology allowed monoplanes to be strong and light enough. Though I do wonder if using the mast tilting instead of variable-pitch blades is more efficient? The "downwind" traveling blade will generate less (or no) lift depending upon wind and turbine wing speeds.

[@michaeljames5936]

Had never heard of this concept before. Very interesting. Thank you. (Dear Govts. While we're working on floating turbines, please change planning laws to build more, well understood, cheap as chips, onshore wind farms.)

[@kramer65]

Cheap as chips on shore wind farms are nice, if you have space for it. Here in the Netherlands, we unfortunately don't really have space for it. The whole country is cultivated and unfortunately nobody wants a turbine it its backyard..

[@Bob_Adkins]

They have doubled utility rates everywhere they are used, so they're not cheap. And that's before they fail, years before their projected lifespan is up.

[@underwing5]

I wonder how reliable the bearings will be. Conventional WT has two load directions but this requires at least three some asymmetrical and they have to be able to change progressively. Now put that in sea environment and ask it to work for 20 years...I bet it can't be done reliably

[@milanstevic8424]

I suspect there are some critical limitations to this system but it will nevertheless be cheaper to install and maintain. I predict it'll be highly situational at first, but may give rise to tapping some specific geographic as well as economic potentials. For example, it could end up being more approachable to small and privately-owned operations, and this would fill up the secondary source of sea wind power, which is now seen as niche in the (already established behemoth and money-hungry) industry, but is actually much more dominant in reality and wildly underestimated. In my eyes the survivability is the biggest factor of success and the actual assembly incl. the turbine formation and power transfer. Turbine wake is not that important, because we ought not compare the existing systems directly, because they don't compete for the same resource pool in geographic terms.

[@FoobarDesign]

Interested in seeing if they (also) develop a land based version.

[@angellestat2730]

yeah, but if the best advantage is that it can handle stronger winds, then there would be very few locations were that would be constant enough on land.

[@markzanetti6228]

for the life of me, I can't tell if the base rotates in the water to accommodate the change in direction from the wind

[@UpriseEnergy]

You've done a good job of hitting the highlights but would need a deeper dive into the engineering to formulate an opinion. As for the possibility of a mitigated wake, this would have value for onshore windfarms but the ocean is so vast, it's difficult to see the benefit. For the record, a general rule of thumb is to separate turbines by at least 1.5X rotor diameter so the wind has time to heal before hitting the downwind machine. Something I kept waiting to hear was the coefficient of power for the monoblade and how the Cp degrades with changes in the angle of attack. At the end of the day, there's no way this system will have equivalent efficiency of a traditional horizontal axis offshore turbine, so the benefits have to come from the lower CapEx amortized over time. The ocean is also a very harsh environment, so creating a machine that can withstand these conditions and reliably transfer the generated energy to shore is a challenge not to be underestimated.

[@4115steve]

you should mention that the threadripper allows someone to run multiple gpu's at full data bandwidth, unlike regular CPU's

[@ilankander7651]

Could you please refer to: the twisting of the electric cable, effect on the life time of the cable, restrictions on the activity sector of the entire facility, total operating cost?

[@joeynakamura6142]

This is seeing what there might be in unexplored engineering space. It is how you get pioneer inventions.

[@garrenosborne9623]

The best offshore wind ..... is onshore. Brown field sites with minimal nimbys

[@kayakMike1000]

Well, if you want to change climates, build huge off shore fields of these. The wind won't blow water vapor in land and the farms will dry out.

[@kayakMike1000]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmavnWCtf7uKeJIsi=RixiUgnR1_L6IScc

[@Bundy714]

Had to laugh when they threw in the "And we'll 3D print some fish habitat to put under our turbines" LOL.

[@h-j.k.8971]

Conducting generated electricity from a moving to a static base may be inhibitive.

[@milanstevic8424]

Why?

[@shmaknapublar]

Poor birds! :( I love the design, and was fascinated with the video until a few minutes in when my mind started to wander. Then it hit me. If conventional turbines are hazardous to wildlife, these will be devastating. We should be concentrating on wave energy regarding offshore power harvesting.

[@picobyte]

Windmills are never cheap. Their connection to the grid and any sort of backup are never calculated in. Also they ware out in only ten~20y and need lots of maintenance.

[@suunraze]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="393">6:33</a> You need to multiply the probability magnitude of each bin by the cube of the velocity to get annual available bin energy. (Assuming constant turbine efficiency)

[@suunraze]

So using the magnitudes in your graph, for example, a turbine in that location will make more annual energy from 20m/s wind than from 10m/s wind. 0.013 * 20^3 > 0.080 * 10^3

[@kennethferland5579]

@@suunraze Locations don't have just one wind speed. That skew distribution of speeds is going to be replicated almost everywhere but just stretched or compressed if the location is more/less windy. The point is that the all wind turbines have minimum and maximum wind speeds they operate in so summing the bars that it operates in can predict both the capacity factor and total energy production.

[@suunraze]

@kennethferland5579 summing the bars' magnitudes times the cubes of their velocities, yes. The statement, "most wind energy comes from the slower speeds" is incorrect; in the weibull distribution shown, most of the available energy was in the 20 m/s range, not the range the cursor was indicating. This is why it's valuable for a turbine to be operational at high wind speeds, even though they occur rarely.

[@gottfriedheumesser1994]

Something like that was built in Germany in the 1980s as 'Growian' (Großwindanlage). The blade was shown at the Hannover fair. But somehow it failed in practical application, perhaps due to bearing problems with the asymmetric wind force. So I assume that this breakthrough will break again

[@duncanidaho9153]

"The partners and partly also the BMFT also operated the project with political motives. Günther Klätte, board member of the RWE, said at a general meeting of the company: "We need Growian (large wind turbines) to prove that it is not possible" and explained that Growian is something like an educational model to convert nuclear power opponents to true faith."

[@stuartbrown5783]

As others have mentioned the passive functionality - it's response to high winds - has an appeal. I assume that the developer is relying on this to avoid the need for pitch control: that's where my scepticism would lie. Two other points which are important: the swept disc is always at an inclination to the wind, reducing output straight away. I think that gives it a serious handicap; single and twin bladed designs are vulnerable to destructive vibration about an axis parallel to the blades. This could kill the project

[@Alan_Hans__]

It would be nice to see the rotors created in place on a barge or a ship so that they don't have to be transported from land like all turbines traditionally do.

[@kennethferland5579]

Any generation of LIFT will direct air downward, this is simple Newtonian physics. If it dose that ENOUGH to be of any impact is the questions, I am doubtful. But the clearly strongest selling point of the system is the simplicity and lack of pitch control. Also it seems obvious to me that the generator should be placed in or near the float with a strait shaft running down the mast or even being the mast as this will lighten the structure hugely. The biggest issue will be at what MINIMUM windspeed the system can operate in, this is where modern turbines are trying to operate at to get higher capacity factors.

[@oscaroscar5336]

wonder if it would have any effect on sea temperatures, if its moving air down to the surface. might just want a bunch of them at the equator:)

[@thomassutrina7469]

I am a retired aeronautical engineer that worked for 20 yrs for a manufacture of aircraft generators and Emergency ram air turbines. Have examined vertical wind turbines years ago. Let start at the response of this wind turbine design to the variation of wind speed that have cause gear boxes and turbine blades to premature fail. The time constant of the turbine blades, gearbox, and generator are no different then horizontal wind turbines. The time constant for the tilt of the tower is at least an order of magnitude and likely two orders of magnitude slower then the rate of change that cause the turbine damage. It will not help. The power that can be harvested from the wind is a fraction of the frontal area of the turbine. Tilting the swept disk of the wind turbine reduces that area time the sine of the axis of the turbine to wind direction. And as the turbine tilts the disk drops closer to the ocean in slower winds. So at 45 degrees both sine and cosine is 70% of the horizontal axis turbine. The lift of a tilted disk will help eliminate the need for pitch control and the drive to aim the turbine into the wind. The lift will be enhanced by ground effect, the wake stops when it hits the ocean. The wake of a turbine in a wind farm are going to interact. My guess is that they will piling up wakes, will increase the ground effect which will decrease the frontal area of wind turbines deeper in the wind farm array from the wind entering the farm. Finally the reason for two blade choice is structural. Consider that the swept area, angle of attack, and relative wind speed changes with position. This is seen in helicopter blades. The preceding blade has a higher relative wind so even in straight flight the angle of attack is reduced. The receding blade has a lower relative wind so the angle of attack is increased. For a two bladed system with fixed relative angles of the blades dynamics is used to achieve the same angle of attack between preceding and receding blades. Gyrocopter blades do not have a fixed axis of rotation of the blades to the body of the copter. What is the relationship in this wind turbine, not stated. Majority of helicopters have three blades and only the small and simplest helicopters choose two blades. Simply put the fluctuation of lift and thrust of the three blade together is less then two blades. Less stress on the gear box and engine.

[@duncanidaho9153]

cough en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Huey_family

[@mwils2531]

A stability solution for high seas may be in fixing 10 or so units on a a large square submersed space frame, this borrows from an off shore drilling rigs ability to stay still on wild seas.

[@duncanidaho9153]

There are many operational morphologies for shallow water (

[@Runco990]

"Energy much cheaper". Yes, for the energy companies. NOT for the consumer. As always. Anyway, this turbine reminds me of a helicopter auto-rotating. Quite clever idea.

[@tomparatube6506]

Would bolting a gyroscope / gimbal to the base help in any way?

[@cptcosmo]

How do they compare to vertical wind turbines or the Liam F1 wind turbine that won't chop birds to pieces?

[@vgstb]

The biggest turbine (type MySE 16-260) of the China Three Gorges Corporation has a max power rating of 16 Megawatts and are designed to operate in tropic storms that are occuring yearly in the South China Sea. The turbine remains operable at wind speeds up to 79,8 meters per second or 287 km/h. The efficiency of the turbine is nearing 90% of the Betz's coefficient (max achievable extraction of wind power by a wind turbine, is 59.3% in accordance with Betz law). It would be interesting to see the efficiency of the one blade turbine mentioned in the video.

[@duncanidaho9153]

Truly a beast, overwhelms offshore wind problem areas with shear size - but also a massive capital cost.

[@kennethferland5579]

Their is no way a turbines OPERATES in winds that fast, they mearly survive them. All turbines have a cutout speed where they apply brakes and stop turning. What your quoting is the wind speed which would overwhelm and utterly destroy the turbine. Fortunatly it is a speed well above even catagory 5 hurricane winds and is only a little below the highest hurricane speed ever recorded a 96 m/s so if the engineering is accurate it is a very durable turbine.

[@fins59]

These turbines will be mincers for sea birds, that'll solve the problem of too many wandering albatross taking the bait on fishermen's longlines I'm sure. Other costs, such as the cost to bird life has to be taken into consideration, not just financial.

[@filonin2]

Way, WAY less than are killed by the fossil fuels they are replacing, so it's a cost savings in lives. Nice try, big oil.

[@simonjelley]

If Darius VAWTs are mostly held back by bearing challenges with one blade passing through the tower shadow, surely this has that issue? …and gyro loads from adjusting for gusts and from waves! 200m blade seems unlikely to me. However, small scale deployment might be cheap enough even with ruggedised bearings if the higher winds and reduced wake claims are valid. Certainly a fresh idea anyway…

[@mikkelkromann1418]

From an economic standpoint, the ability to generate power at high wind speeds is less interesting in a future energy system with lots of wind turbines. In that case, a lot of turbines are producing, and the power price will plummet. The ability to generate at lower wind speeds is much more interesting. I'd be interested to hear more about that. I'd love to see a power curve relating wind speed to power output for this type of system.

[@kennethferland5579]

That indeed is what the market is trying to do, get higher capacity by capturing low speed wing.

[@markthomasson5077]

Looks interesting, almost as though it might work / be profitable. One thing. As they swing into the wind, they, like all turbines, need a 360 deg bearing, and transfer of power. Normally up high, but with this design it is at water level so vulnerable. On the design of the one piece blade (why said to be asymmetrical) the disadvantage is that the blade cannot change angle to gain the most efficiency. This is offset by cost and less maintenance

[@Pystro]

I think the 360 degree bearing here may be in the ocean floor anchor. ... Then again, that still doesn't explain how the cables connect.

[@seneca983]

"why said to be asymmetrical" I don't think it was said to be asymmetrical. I think it only looks asymmetrical in some of these animations because of perspective.

[@BobMcKay1612]

@@PystroThat is accomplished with a Slip Ring. Same technology used reliably offshore for decades on FPSO vessels in Oil and Gas industry. Look up “Moog Focal Model 483”

[@charvais]

Try being yourself, resist cleches such as "but, more on that later" & "so, what of the future". Also its two blades made in one unit, if it was one blade it would have a counter weight for balance both rotating around the shaft.

[@markmuller7962]

What about combining this with the new gen of waves energy generators? They both are floating generators

[@glennmartin6492]

There's the promising efficiency of a quarter turbine without mass beyond the tips of the rotor to absorb energy.

[@kstorm889]

I understand how gyrocopters work, but im not sure how that applies to this turbine tipping up in high wind passively

[@MadRat70]

Its downwind so as forces increase it will tilt up. Better look into stability in crosswinds. It may spin itself underwater.

[@duncanidaho9153]

@@MadRat70 It weathervanes.

[@hiscifi2986]

So you are saying that in 10 foot waves, the whole machine will bounce up and down 10 feet..? Hope it uses some very flexible power cables.

[@CandC68]

Two variables that can be reduced to one. Air direction and wave/water turbulence and direction. Why not try the blades in water at different depths. No air/wind involved. Reduce wave turbulence, depending upon depth. If the blade design is better than 3 blade propellers, if may work in water also.

[@CBlargh]

The flotation device needs to be spherical.

[@roginutah]

A 200 metre blade? That's huge! Seems impossible to make it strong enough. Could easily make a 10 metre prototype. Why haven't they? Probably hoping to get some of those 'green energy' dollars/pounds that are so popular, first.

[@DrJigglebones]

actual content of the video: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="230">3:50</a> - <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="291">4:51</a> and <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="390">6:30</a> - <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="650">10:50</a>

[@MihailG5541]

There's no any info about self -start speed, time to rotate by the wind, tower negative effects and so on. Where are numbers the lowest and the highest working speed? So many questions...

[@yvanpimentel9950]

I've been wondering for years why they didn't make wind blades wider, always long and thin, this design can be made out of three parts

[@Pastronomer69]

Wider blades are far less efficient than short stubby ones. For a given area of blade a higher aspect ration will create a much larger lift/drag ratio. Think gliders Vs fighter jets

[@seneca983]

It's because the blades move quite fast through the air. Faster means that thinner blades are optimal. Bigger blades would increase drag.

[@keithjenkins7919]

Far out at sea, so how do you get the power to shore?