Vertical turbines could be the future for wind farms
The now-familiar sight of traditional propeller wind turbines could be replaced in the future with wind farms containing more compact and efficient vertical turbines.
New research from Oxford Brookes University has found that the vertical turbine design is far more efficient than traditional turbines in large scale wind farms, and when set in pairs the vertical turbines increase each other’s performance by up to 15%.
A research team from the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (ECM) at Oxford Brookes led by Professor Iakovos Tzanakis conducted an in-depth study using more than 11,500 hours of computer simulation to show that wind farms can perform more efficiently by substituting the traditional propeller type Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), for compact Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs).
Wind turbines whose axes point upwards co-operate, boosting the output of those near them, a new study has found. The research makes a case for building wind farms this way, rather than using conventional designs, but history is against the idea.
Many designs have been tried in the effort to turn the wind s energy into electricity. One, however, has dominated. Known as the horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) it s the one we are familiar with; a tall pole supporting a large turbine and long blades sweeping like the hands of a wall clock. HAWTs make 5 percent of the world s electricity and that is rising fast as ever-larger turbines capture higher altitude wins, many now out to sea where the winds are stronger.
April 30, 2021, by Adrijana Buljan
New research from Oxford Brookes University has found that Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) are far more efficient in large scale (offshore) wind farms than the traditional Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs).
Spinning around an axis vertical to the ground, VAWTs exhibit the opposite behaviour of the traditional horizontal propeller design and increase each other’s performance when arranged in grid formations. When set in pairs, the vertical turbines increase each other’s performance by up to 15 per cent, according to the study.
Source: Oxford Brookes University
A research team from the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (ECM) at Oxford Brookes led by Professor Iakovos Tzanakis conducted an in-depth study using more than 11,500 hours of computer simulation to show that wind farms can perform more efficiently by substituting the traditional HAWT propeller type for compact VAW
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