A Spanish tech start-up company called Vortex Bladeless is developing a new kind of Wind Turbine without any blades. It wants to completely change the way we get energy from the wind. Think wind stick instead of a massive tower with blades that capture blowing winds.
Wind farms currently supply 0.2% of the worlds energy demands. The main environmental concern of wind turbines is the number of avian deaths. The American Bird Conservatory estimates that wind turbines kill between 10 and 40 thousand birds per year.
The Vortex has the same goals as conventional wind turbines: To turn breezes into kinetic energy that can be used as electricity. The conical shape harnesses the oscillating motion caused by the wind and converts that to kinetic energy.
When wind hits a structure and flows over its surfaces the flow changes and generates a cyclical pattern of vortices at the tail end of the flow. This is known as the vortex shedding effect which creates something known as vorticity and that is what Vortex Bladeless uses to generate energy.
Vorticity has long been considered the enemy of architects and engineers, who actively try to design their way around these whirlpools of wind. Where designers see danger, Vortex Bladeless’s founders see opportunity. The team started Vortex Bladeless in 2010 as a way to turn this vibrating energy into something productive.
According to conservative estimates: Vortex saves 53% in manufacturing costs and 51% in operating costs compared to conventional wind turbines.
The Vortex team says there are some clear advantages to their model: It’s less expensive to manufacture, totally silent, and safer for birds since there are no blades to fly into. Vortex Bladeless says its turbine would cost around 51 percent less than a traditional turbine whose major costs come from the blades and support system.
In theory, there’s no reason why a design like Vortex Bladeless’s couldn’t turn wind energy into electrical power. The company isn’t the first to think about using wind oscillations to generate power instead of spinning a fan. That idea’s been around for decades, long enough that the Solar Energy Research lnstitute (SERI) studied the technology for the Department of Energy in 1983.
Initially, the co-founders were looking at large generating devices. That remains a longer-term goal but a much shorter range goal is a device of 4kW Vortex that would be about 13 meters tall. The company sees this generator being used in conjunction with solar generation for homes that are either off the grid or want to be off the grid.
Vortex is working on a few different sizes; its “Mini,” a 41-foot model, should be ready for commercialization next year, while a larger, industrial model is in the works for 2018. In February of this year, Vortex Bladeless relocated to Boston. There it is working with Harvard University, SunEdison, and is working with venture capitalists for its next round of Series A funding. Due to public interest in investing in the company, they will launch a crowdfunding campaign on June 1.
