Wind Turbine Blades Take A Cue From The Humpback Whale

November 27, 2009

WhalePower fan blades are inspired by the bumps on the fins of a humpback whale

WhalePower’s catchy marketing slogan has got lots of mileage in technical trade publications: “A Million Years Of Field Tests.”

Now the Toronto company’s first product is coming to market. And its claim is a 20 percent boost in wind turbine performance. It also reduces turbine noise.

WhalePower’s Tubercle technology is the company’s ambitious bid to redesign the blades used in turbines, fans, pumps and compressors. It is inspired by the bumps on a humpback whale’s flippers, which increase its ability to power through water and correspondingly the ability of a blade to spin quicker in the air.

The first Tubercle product will be marketed through Envira-North Systems Limited for a high-efficiency ceiling fan. Envira’s claim is the blades can reduce the cost of a ceiling fan by 93 percent

The market reception will be an interesting test the wind industry should be watching closely.

3 Comments | news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Israeli Company Targets Small Urban Wind Farms

August 31, 2009

An interesting post on Israel21c about a startup developing products for small urban wind farms.

The fluctuations of urban wind make capturing its energy more difficult

The fluctuations of urban wind make capturing its energy more difficult

Variable Wind Solutions of Tel-Aviv is working on technology to improve the output and efficiency of the wind turbines – not on the turbines themselves.

It claims the fluctuating wind conditions of population centers make it difficult to effectively capture energy from the wind. This is a key reason why urban farms are been slow to take root.

CEO Ian Kaplan hopes a pilot project in California – and follow-on tests in England, Israel and Denmark – will show his technology can change this.

“Our technology can work with any kind of rotor design, so we can easily partner with any small wind turbine company and use their existing rotor setup,” Kaplan says. He predicts the three-year-old company will begin to sell its products commercially in as little as four months.

The company has raised $2.6 million in funding.

If he is right, the skyline of cities could change.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Next Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 32 other followers