The highly hyped ducted wind turbines near Palm Springs have been removed. The Ogin turbines were removed sometime this summer.
The seven turbines were installed earlier this year west of Indian Avenue in the windy San Gorgonio Pass. See Ogin Installs Ducted Turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass.
A quick Google search didn’t turn up any press reports on the move. There’s nothing on Ogin’s web site that explains why the turbines were removed. A call into Ogin went to voicemail and has yet to be returned.
It’s unusual for experimental turbines to be removed after only six or more months of testing.
The claims by Ogin and its predecessor FloDesign about the efficacy of the design were controversial, yet the company received high-profile backing from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
To my knowledge, there was one prototype turbine installed on Deer Island in Boston Harbor, and one pre-production prototype installed in California’s Antelope Valley. See FloDesign-Ogin Diffuser Augmented Turbine (DAWT) in the Wild.
In 2008, the Department of Energy’s Arpa (Advanced Research Projects Agency) invested $8 million in what DOE called a “breakthrough”. Hyping the device in the tech press, DOE called FloDesign’s turbine “innovative” and claimed it “could deliver 300% more power than existing wind turbines of the same rotor diameter by extracting more energy over a larger area.” Elsewhere, FloDesign was telling the media they could do all this for 30% less cost.
No ducted wind turbines have ever lived up to its manufacturer’s claims. See Ducted Wind Turbines for more information shrouded or augmented wind turbines.
