Page 20 - North American Clean Energy January/February 2019 Issue

wind power
ANew
Dawn
for
Vertical
Axis
Wind
Turbines
by Douglas Hirsh and John Selby
Large, horizontal axis wind turbines are becoming a ubiquitous aspect of the landscape – both onshore, as well as o shore. Designs and e ciencies continue to improve, and costs keep coming down. As the wind market matures, more and more players drive market e ciencies, which helps to lower the price per kilowatt-hour. By 2027, total worldwide wind power capacity is expected to double over 2018 levels.1
As efficient as they are, horizontal axis wind turbines have their limitations:
• they need substantial bases and the right kind of substrate
• they require signi cant capital investment
• they are not well suited to areas with gusty omni-
directional winds
• they face opposition to being installed in areas where they
may harm wildlife (such as birds and bats
• they aren’t able to address the market between 10 kW
micro installations, and the typical 2.5 MW entry point for large units.
is leaves a signi cant market void that hasn’t been adequately addressed until recently. Vertical axis wind turbines aren’t a new technology; they’ve been in use around the world for decades. Historically, vertical axis wind turbines have traded e ciency for low cost, ease of service, and scalability – used primarily for mundane tasks like pumping water, or local power generation for micro or small grid needs on farms. Even these applications have been displaced by a new generation of e cient, and a ordable, micro scale horizontal axis wind turbines.
You may wonder, what has saved vertical axis units from the history books?
e answer is engineering.
A very old concept has been given
new life, thanks to recent advances in design enabled by computational uid dynamics, metallurgy, the generator set, bearings, lubricants, power storage, and a
complete rethink of the structure. Where e ciencies used to be in the 7 percent range, new generation vertical axis wind turbines are seeing e ciencies of greater than 60 percent. at's comparable
to - or even better than- the best new horizontal axis units.
Unlike horizontal axis based wind farms that have a very rigid cost and placement structure, vertical axis units o er a refreshing degree of freedom.
Vertical axis wind turbines can be placed wherever there is wind. is includes the rooftops of buildings in
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JANUARY•FEBRUARY2019 /// www.nacleanenergy.com