This summary reflects my view at the time. Key participants were acknowledging the technical failure of Vortec 7, but they couched their failure in arcane technical language at arcane conferences.
Vortec
The most important tip to keep in mind is that from Robert Gasch. If there is a new wind turbine, no one should pay the slightest attention to it until they “build it, measure it, and publish” the results. Until then, it’s just hot air–and nothing more.
Doubts about an unusual approach to turbine design have been proven right with the demise of Vortec Energy, launched in 1994 with strong hopes for its diffuser augmented wind turbine (DAWT) design. Strong financial interest raised NZ$25 million ($10.3 million) and there was talk of listings in the US and Europe alongside licensing deals in Australia and Spain. But the New Zealand company has admitted to shareholders that its technology is not commercially viable and Vortec Energy is being wound up
Wind turbine company Vortec Energy is being wound up because its project is uneconomic, despite having raised $23 million in the past five years. . .
The announcement this week that Vortec is closing comes as no surprise to Windflow Technology chief executive, Geoff Henderson. Windflow Technology Ltd is raising $3 million to establish local manufacturing of its Windflow design.
Simplified one-dimensional arguments lead to predictions of speed-ups of about 2 and power augmentations of about 4, but such power levels have not been observed to date.
Vortec Energy – after spending $5 million on what its chief describes as New Zealand’s most expensive “sculpture” – has emerged with new wind-harnessing technology and made its first licensing deal. . . Robin Johannink, Vortec’s managing director, is painfully frank about the first under-performing wind turbine-prototype. “The bottom line was, it didn’t do what it should have done.”
The New Zealand Wind Energy Association newsletter gives some information about the status of the Vortec 7 project, reports Thomas Ackermann. . .
I was critical of the development of this wind turbine for several reasons: excessive hype, questionable sales of stock, and the aggressive style of the company’s promoter.
AS WIND turbine generator Vortec Energy gets ready for a 10-city roadshow: to promote its $10m public offering an overseas … Read more
