Wind turbines in their current most widespread form were invented several decades ago by the Danes at Vestas, and this formula of a tall central tower with a propeller of as large a diameter as possible covering as large an area as possible winds and to propel an electric generator as powerful as possible, became the basis of the progress of renewable energy from wind sources. All large wind farms on land and sea are built on this principle, the only difference being the solutions by which the tower is fixed in the water or floating on the water, the composition of the materials – steel, composite materials or even wood, and of course the power and efficiency of the generator . Today, wind turbines have reached a power of 16 MW in Europe, already produced and installed, and up to 20-22 MW in China, among those announced in production, but not yet installed somewhere. Now an American inventor and designer has created a new type of wind turbines, framed in fence structures, with curious parameters.
The designer, named Joe Doucet, has made a name for himself primarily by designing and conceiving products, winning several awards in his industry. Now he has also made his launch in the field of renewable energy, being convinced that his new wind turbine, for which he has also submitted the documents to be patented, can be extremely useful for the transition to renewable energy, being placed instead of fences and barriers ordinary things that surround us, but adding more utility and being visually pleasing.
Joe Doucet teamed up with renewable energy investor Jeff Stone and together they founded the startup Airiva, which would produce these wind turbines.
Indeed, we are talking about vertical wind turbines, in a somewhat helical shape, which could remind one of a drill with vertically stretched blades. These vertical turbines are made of a material relatively similar to that of large wind turbines, but thinner, because they are not subjected to such large forces.
The turbines are framed in modular blocks in the shape of a fence, each block having 4 vertical turbines integrated into it and measuring 2.10 meters high and also 2.10 meters long, having a depth of 1.05 meters. A fence can be formed from multiple such blocks, arranged next to each other and modularly joined, and at the end of the row a hub is mounted, also 2.10 meters high and 1.05 meters deep, but smaller in length, 0.80 meters , with the control systems of the generated electrical power integrated into it, such as the integrated inverter, which also has a stabilizing role.
Respectively, the basic idea is that wherever a fence is needed, instead of a static construction, these modular blocks can be placed that take the form of a fence, but which will also fulfill the role of electricity production. And its creators also see it as a fence for terraces or yards, but also as a highway fence or even airports. The turbines are protected by a less visible net on both sides, so that passing between them would not be possible. And their advantage would be that, being compact and light, they can be transported and installed easily, without requiring huge specialized cranes or even ships in the case of marine turbines.
But, of course, there are also disadvantages. First of all, the designer and start-up Airiva does not mention the capacity factor that he estimates for these turbines, at such a small scale, and large wind turbines have capacity factors of up to 25-45% in the case of land and up to 65-68% in the case of maritime ones for a very good reason — they capture the wind at a higher height, where it is more intense than on the ground, being also located in more prolific regions. Placing such a smaller turbine at ground level can generate electricity, but the average annual output will certainly be much lower.
However, the inventor said in a press release from April, when he was just doing the first tests with these turbines, that those initial tests had shown that a block of 4 turbines fitted into it could generate up to 1,100 kWh annually. This is equivalent to the electricity production of a little more than a photovoltaic panel, with a surface that would ensure an installed power of about 850 W.
Theoretically, the figure of 1,100 kWh for such a fence of only 2.1 meters long and 2.1 meters high sounds good. Someone who installed 10.5 meters of fence would put 5 such blocks and generate 5,500 kWh annually, and if you have a bigger house, with a heat pump installed and possibly an electric car, and you consume about 15 -20 thousand kWh, then you would need about 14-18 such blocks, the price of which has not been announced yet.
In the case of airports or long highways, the fences can sometimes be kilometers long, and in one kilometer of such a fence with wind turbines there would fit at least 450 such blocks, if we leave some spare distance for the blocks with inverters. At 450 blocks, such a fence would produce 495,000 kWh annually, or 495 MWh, so practically 0.5 GWh annually per kilometer of fence. Of course, the design being modular, the fences can be superimposed in some cases, for example in two levels.
So, an idea that apparently explores an interesting opportunity and if these figures were true, everything could be viable if it also comes with a price that would justify the investment in a fence block, which would produce 1,100 kWh annually, or , at the European level at an average price of electricity between 0.10 euro and 0.25 euro per kWh, such a block would annually generate electricity worth 110 and 275 euro, so it matters a lot if it will cost a few hundred euros or several thousand euros, extending the investment redemption period. But the biggest problem might be the real-world capacity factor at low altitude from the ground. In the laboratory, the winds may indicate a good production yield, but in the field, at zero altitude, the frequency and average intensity of the winds will be much lower, and this can greatly affect the promised figure of 1,100 kWh produced annually.
