DAF-Indal: the Canadian Darrieus
DAF-Indal began working with Canada’s National Research Council and provincial utilities to develop Darrieus wind turbines using Canada’s abundant aluminum in the mid 1970s.
They constructed about a dozen small prototype Darrieus turbines less than 5 meters in diameter and about 9 meters tall in the mid to late 1970s, rated variously from 4 kW to 12 kW. They also installed about a dozen 11-meter diameter, 50 kW turbines in Canada, the USA, and Australia.
DAF-Indal installed one noteworthy 230 kW turbine on the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, one 500 kW turbine on Prince Edward Island, and one 500 kW turbine in the San Gorgonio Pass before ceasing operations in the early 1990s.
DAF-Indal: The Canadian Darrieus
By
Paul Gipe
DAF-Indal[1] began working with Canada’s National Research Council and provincial utilities to develop Darrieus wind turbines using Canada’s abundant aluminum in the mid 1970s.[2] They constructed about a dozen small prototype Darrieus turbines less than 5 meters in diameter and about 9 meters tall in the mid to late 1970s, rated variously from 4 kW to 12 kW.[3] One was installed in the Arctic for Canada’s Defence Research Establishment.[4] Another was installed in Texas at the USDA’s Bushland Experiment Station in a wind-assisted pumping test. Another was installed on Block Island, Rhode Island.[5] One was still standing—inoperative–outside Toronto in 2007.[6]
DAF-Indal 50 kW Darrieus in the Pacheco Pass
By
Paul Gipe
The Canadian fabricator, DAF-Indal, installed a second generation 50 kW Darrieus turbine in 1981 at the the Romero Overlook Visitor …
Failed Dream: the Bearingless Wind Turbine Rotor of the Late 1970s
By
Paul Gipe
On paper the composite bearingless rotor seemed too good to be true: a wind turbine rotor that enabled the blades to change pitch without bearings in the hub. And the wind turbine would passively use aerodynamic forces to orient the rotor downwind of the tower. It was the height of simplicity and would be cheap to build. What could go wrong? The short answer: everything. Eventually the nearly 400 wind turbines using the concept in California during the Great California Wind Rush of the early to mid 1980s were scraped off the face of the earth for scrap. And therein lays a sprawling tale.
Explanation for FloWind Blade Failures by an Eyewitness
By
Paul Gipe
Because of my critical articles on Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines, Wind Harvest’s Kevin Wolf contacted me with background on what failed …
Abandoned DAF-Indal Darrieus Turbine on the Îles-de-la-Madeleine
By
Paul Gipe
Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Abandoned Vertical Axis Windmill In The Magdalen Islands.
DAF-Indal 50 kW Longest Lived Canadian Darrieus?
By
Paul Gipe
In 1997, Canadian meteorologist Jim Salmon reported that a 50 kW DAF-Indal turbine at Christopher Point, on the southern tip …
