Wind turbines keep getting bigger and bigger. But at some point there are going to be serious difficulties making blades of sufficient size. So, here is my idea:
Instead of giant blades, why not a giant funnel? At the neck of the funnel a relatively small turbine generator. The funnel is a static structure, could be made any size, even increased/decreased in size without shutting down the powerplant, and would not require as much maintenance. The Venturi effect would dominate airflow through the funnel, making airspeed very high through the turbine.
All you would need is a big inlet and a small outlet. Wire and fabric could make up the majority of the skin. Consider a tv tower can be made 2000 ft tall, and supported with simple guy wires. Place two, 2000-ft tall towers 10,000 feet apart. Total funnel inlet area 20 million sq.ft.
Currently a wind turbine with a 300-foot diameter rotor (70684 sq.ft) generates 3 Megawatts power max. I predict that my 2000-ft tall and 10000-ft wide funnel would generate 283-times more power, or 849 Megawatts, each.
Giant Wind Turbines
The whole thread (42 posts)
- Giant Wind Turbines
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- Thought on caves.
- re: Is there anything wrong with this design.
- Stormblade
- The problem with wind turbines so far.
- people are already trying to build simmilar devices, called 'Solar Updraft Towers' I believe, in Australia (n/t)
- Make the tunnel parabolic in shape.
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- Cost, time-to-build.