battery-less VAWT [RE-wrenches]

Matt Tritt solarone at charter.net
Tue Jan 8 14:31:36 PST 2008


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Right you are Dan,

To add a couple of points to your list, virtually every one of the 
emergent VAWT "companies" that have contacted me over the years seem to 
have a common problem, be they Darrieus or Savonius - that being that 
they can't seem to find a "good" commercially available alternator that 
will work with their equipment. No big surprise, since most of these 
guys don't understand effective swept area, tip speed ratios or power 
control! I think they all must have read the same popular mechanics 
article from 1975 (not really) that tells you how to build one in your 
spare time from used coffee cans and bicycle alternators. ;-)

Beware of any VAWT company that has an "investor's" tab on their website.

Beware of any that claim to be a "breakthrough" in anything.

Beware of any that mange to break Betz' theorem. (And they all seem to!)

Matt

Dan Fink wrote:

>Hi Kelly -- I don't know of very many commercial small VAWT products in
>the US that have enough tested installations over the years to be
>confident in, much less on a rooftop where the wind speeds are slow and
>turbulent. Your best bet most likely is to talk with PacWind or Ropatec
>about their VAWTs. Both of these companies do at least have actual
>installations you could visit, and they don't violate the majority of
>the rules in Paul Gipe's famous "How to detect a wind turbine scam"
>article.
>
>The SMA WindyBoy direct grid tie inverter won't even work until you hit
>150v, and the Power-One Aurora that can deal with lower voltages is not
>yet available (it's what we are looking into for our turbine designs
>here--it might be out this summer). Not sure if either of those above
>VAWT machines can do direct grid tie with either of those inverters, but
>it's worth asking them.
>
>The difficult part of treading in the VAWT world is differentiating
>between companies that actually make actual wind turbine products,
>companies that might be able to make their first actual product ever
>(after you pay them in advance), and those that just want you to invest
>in developing a product that has never been built in larger than HO
>scale and probably will never make a single watt-hour. 
>
>If you DO finally install some VAWTs for these customers......meter the
>heck out of them, individually. kwh per day, month and year, in a
>spreadsheet. That will be a breath of fresh air (pun intended) for us
>renewable energy journalists who labor under the weight of VAWT scam
>after scam. I imagine the serious VAWT manufacturers feel the same way,
>some good kwh numbers at a variety of sites would lend their business
>some much-needed credibility.
>
>DAN FINK
>Technical Director
>http://www.otherpower.com/
>
>
>
>
>
>On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 10:46 -0800, Kelly Keilwitz wrote:
>  
>
>>Wrenches,
>>An industrial customer is going for LEED certification on one of their many
>>buildings. As this is a "showcase" project, the 40 KW PV proposal we've been
>>asked to design/install includes bifacial module awnings and Vertical Axis
>>Wind Turbines on the roof.
>>
>>We've already pointed out that the VAWT's won't be cost-effective. However,
>>taller towers and HAWT's have been ruled-out because of height limitations.
>>And, our customer wants the wind to be a visible "beacon" of their
>>green-ness. Also, our company has been singled out because of our experience
>>with wind (so I don't want to push the issue too much).
>>
>>Any recommendations of a VAWT mfr & model that can be grid-tied with a
>>battery-less inverter? We'd rather not mess with batteries on this one.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>-Kelly
>>    
>>
>
>
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>  
>

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