Wind farms need improvement

[trevorjohnson83]

A 10' x 10' plastic tarp weighs around 5 lbs. A wind turbine blade ranges around 5200 lbs for 100 feet in length. Obviously the lighter a wind turbine and the more surface area it covers, the higher the efficiency of converting wind to electricity. If you used large plastic tarps there is probably a good half a dozen ways to invent to build the turbine. Like a flag in the wind or like a sail on a boat. Anyways it would be much cheaper to build a wind farm out of tarps then huge heavy blades and all the steel that goes into those structures.

 

[mamooth]

Turbine blades are surprising light for their size. They're hollow inside, and made of fiberglass or carbon fiber. A hundred-foot blade would be about 6000 pounds.

Stringing up cloth sails or tarps to cover the same area would probably weigh _more_, and be much less durable.

 

[trevorjohnson83]

Turbine blades are surprising light for their size. They're hollow inside, and made of fiberglass or carbon fiber. A hundred-foot blade would be about 6000 pounds.

Stringing up cloth sails or tarps to cover the same area would probably weigh _more_, and be much less durable.

But the numbers are right there, 10'x100' tarp would only weigh 50 lbs vs 6000 lb wind blades. If you have a fan what are you going to have an easier time pushing around a plastic car or a heavy fiberglass car?

 

[Grumblenuts]

Tarps and sails require much heavier support masts and beams. Light drag designs are plentiful and work best for venting and direct mechanical purposes such as pumping water. The turbines commonly used to produce electric power are lift machines, not drag. They're actually designed to make use of only the wind passing trough the relatively narrow ring swept by their blade tips at high angular velocity. Aside from supporting the tips, the rest of the blade supplies momentum to help prevent stalling and helps get the things going again when stopped mainly through drag.

These large lift turbines are a great choice for remote areas with high sustained winds. Everywhere else, where average wind speeds are relatively low or less sustained, designing just for drag effects likely works out best. Much cheaper and lighter. I still find Mike Water's simple design to be both genius and a great compromise. Even Nikola Tesla would be impressed.

 

[trevorjohnson83]

Tarps and sails require much heavier support masts and beams. Light drag designs are plentiful and work best for venting and direct mechanical purposes such as pumping water. The turbines commonly used to produce electric power are lift machines, not drag. They're actually designed to make use of only the wind passing trough the relatively narrow ring swept by their blade tips at high angular velocity. Aside from supporting the tips, the rest of the blade supplies momentum to help prevent stalling and helps get the things going again when stopped mainly through drag.

These large lift turbines are a great choice for remote areas with high sustained winds. Everywhere else, where average wind speeds are relatively low or less sustained, designing just for drag effects likely works out best. Much cheaper and lighter. I still find Mike Water's simple design to be both genius and a great compromise. Even Nikola Tesla would be impressed

It's simple logic. The lighter the blades, the more energy goes into spinning the generator and less into moving heavy blades. You could build a turbine similar to a flag breezing in the wind and avoid all the framework.

 

[fncceo]

It's simple logic. The lighter the blades, the more energy goes into spinning the generator and less into moving heavy blades. You could build a turbine similar to a flag breezing in the wind and avoid all the framework.

Which is why they use them on airplanes...

 

[Grumblenuts]

Wind Turbines: