R.C. AndersonWhales Advise Wind Turbine Engineers
September 15th 2008 16:02
Everyone is interested in renewable, alternative sources of energy currently. No one wants to continue to pay high gas prices or spend exorbitant amounts of money for electricity. While a combination of alternative energy sources seems to be the answer, one company is trying to increase the efficiency and output of wind energy.
Wind turbines have their own set of problems, like everything else. One is that even though the blades of the turbines are supposed to catch the wind to turn the turbine to create energy, they don’t always do so. Sometimes, if the wind fails to move across the blades in the correct way, the blades can’t catch it and they slow or stop. This is slightly similar to a tire on a wet or icy road. If the tire has no tread, it tends to slide across the road rather than drive on it. If the tire is new and has lots of tread, the tire can grip the road and allow the driver a modicum of control. By looking at whales and how their fins are formed, scientists have developed a new way to form the blades for wind turbines.
Whales, in order to control their movement through the water, have large bumps on their fins. This forces the water to move across their fins differently, allowing them a type of “grip”. Wind blades can be fashioned in a similar way, by creating, not slick, but bumpy blades. These, so far, have been proven to catch the wind better and allow the angle of the blade to be increased by 40 degrees if necessary before they begin to slow or stop. Although the first prototypes are going to be made for ceiling fans which will be 24 feet across, the turbine blades will need to be 400 feet across. If the ceiling fan prototype works as scientists expect, new wind turbine blades will be next on the market. Although some doubt much more efficiency will be gained by these new blades, they may be surprised, and even a small increase in efficiency could be worth it financially.
Source: Discover, September 2008
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