In the research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson has been dredging up some amazing videos. (See Hywind Scotland Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Video.)
Inventions & Questionable Wind Turbines
Is the end near for SheerWind’s Invelox ducted wind turbine? The problems with SheerWind’s design are coming to a head as its signature clients lose faith.
FloDesign’s prototype ducted wind turbine on Deer Island in Boston Harbor is being removed, according the agency that operates the nearby sewage treatment plant.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes in a new report that rooftop-mounted and building-integrated wind turbines are a failure, though readers would be hard pressed to find that statement in so many words.
Makani Airborne Wind Energy Turbine (AWT) hasn’t been in the news lately. They arrived in a flurry of press in 2013 as the next big thing from Google. The device is a powered kite tethered to the ground or in this new application to a ship. The device is a powered kite tethered to the ground or in this new application to a ship.
Turns out, the wind tree is actually worse than initially thought.
Former employees of the erstwhile ducted turbine manufacturer Ogin have posted comments about their jobs on a public web site.
More photos of the Ogin ducted wind turbine dismantlement have been “thrown over my transom.” These close-up photos show far more detail of the disassembly and scrapping process than before.
I am writing this now to close the book on this sad little turbine and the whole “let’s put them on the roof” phenomenon. Stumbling across an obscure NREL field test report from long ago (see Power Performance Test Report for the SWIFT Wind Turbine) dredged up this dark period in small wind turbine development.
Ogin, the Massachusetts-based ducted turbine company, has installed six of seven turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, California.
