OrganoWorld, a company based in Montreal, Canada, has developed a wind turbine able to harness energy at low wind speeds.
Concerned about the effects of global climate change, chemical engineer Frederick Churchill began to explore the use of wind energy. He carried out preliminary research for his technology with the assistance of personnel and research facilities at both the University of Montreal, and the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi.
The Winga e-Jetstream Generator design converges low wind onto an annular rotor, and diverges it to create a large augmentation of the wind velocity. While a three-wing rotor would only be able to create 51.1 W/m2 from a mean wind velocity of 4.4 m/s, the Winga e-Jetstream Generator would be able to create as much 26,168.5 W/m2.
The following diagram depicts the technology:
According to Cleantech PatentEdge™, OrganoWorld owns six international, or PCT, applications, including applications directed to various features of its wind turbine: International Application No. PCT/CA2009/000797 for the apparatus to increase fluid velocity in a fluid turbine, International Application No. PCT/CA2009/001641 for the fluid directing system for turbines, and International Application No. PCT/CA2009/001649 for the annular multi rotor double wall turbine, among others.
Additional patent applications are also underway.
One technical problem, relating to early boundary layer separation in the diffuser, has been overcome, making this a fully scalable technology.
The company is seeking funding to build a 250 kW commercial prototype with the hopes of making wind power more accessible for commercial building owners, universities, and off-grid locations. According to Churchill, the company is currently exploring opportunities in the Caribbean and in Germany.
Article by Rosemary Ostfeld, a contributor to Green Patent Blog. Rosemary recently completed both her undergraduate and graduate education at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She double majored in Biology, and Earth & Environmental Sciences as an undergraduate, and received her Master’s in Earth & Environmental Sciences.
2 comments
This looks like anything close to a hoax — and, by the way, why don’t they tell us about the high-wind performance of their system?
If they compare it uniquely for wind speeds below the typical cut-in wind-speed of three-bladed HAWTs (7 – 10 m/s), a much cheaper and simpler solution (and a better-looking one, at that) would be a multi-blade (4+ blades) HWAT.
However, in higher winds, such a low-wind multiple-blade HAWT would not achieve the 70 – 80% return of the theoretical 60% maximum kinetic energy conversion rate typical for 3-bladed HAWTs.
As to the claimed ratio of 50 versus 26’000 W/m2, this remains a fantasy figure as long as we don’t know whether the rated W/m2 relate to the cross-section of the intake or of the impeller…
Every few months there is a company claiming to have some idea that will revolutionise the wind energy industry. They all:
-make gigantic claims without any evidence
-present only computer graphics, and never even bothered to build a scale model
-need money for further development
-just rehash old ideas that did not work in the past either
-get naive bloggers to uncritically report about there vapourware
-are never heard of again
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