Next-Generation Bladeless Wind Turbines Go “Saphonian” On Us

[The Straight Story]

The Carthaginian goddess Saphon has bestowed divine inspiration upon a Tunisian start-up company named in her honor — Saphon Energy – to create a windless turbine for harnessing electricity from the wind. The “Saphonian” turbine’s design is derived from that of ships’ sails.



There’s a great need for developing alternative methods of capturing the wind for the engendering of electricity because those giant wind turbines popping up all over the place now are riddled with problems, from noise pollution to space invasion to bird murdering. And to be blunt about it, they’re just creepy looking.

Saphon Energy has patented a wind turbine electricity generating system named “Zero-Blade Technology”. This system captures the wind into a back and forth motion which can be transformed into mechanical energy through the use of pistons. These in turn produce hydraulic pressure, and a hydraulic motor and a generator instantly convert that pressure into electricity. If more electricity is being generated than is needed at the time, then the electricity can be stored in a hydraulic accumulator for later release and use.

zero-bladeAnis Aouini, the Saphonian‘s inventor, says “This is not the first bladeless wind turbine, but we thought outside the box: the initial idea came from sails — the only human system that can capture and convert the bulk of the wind’s power into mechanical energy…Our second generation prototype is 2.3 times more efficient, and costs nearly half the price of [modern wind turbines]. It discards the most expensive components in a traditional wind turbine, which are the blades, hub and gearbox.”

http://interestingengineering.com/next-generation-bladeless-wind-turbines-go-saphonian-on-us/

[DetlefK]

1. Video: It's a wobbling sail and the wobbling is harnessed as linear mechanical force.

http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/how-does-it-work.59.html

And please note from the results
http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/tests-and-results.64.html
that they don't give numbers how much electricity they created. Rotational mechanical force is way better for creating electricity, because you can just slap a dynamo onto it.

[VWolf]

3. I was thinking the same thing

Angular momentum tends to be much more efficient than linear momentum in terms of energy conversion. But if they figured out how to do it as efficiently as conventional turbines, more power to them (pun intended).

[NaturalHigh]

2. Very cool, and I would think much less hazardous for birds.

[DetlefK]

4. Are there even numbers, how many birds get killed by turbines?

The rumor keeps popping up, but I never read about a specific example.

[csziggy]

9. Here is an article with info from a British study

http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/04/wind-farms-and-birds

Essential numbers:


If these numbers are even close to correct, cats are more of a hazard than a wind turbine farm.

I have no idea how accurate this is, and I am agnostic about whether or not wind turbines are a significant problem for birds. I know a local group has been studying bird deaths around communications towers for decades, but at the moment I cannot find their data.

[Orrex]

10. What do the communication towers do to birds?

I've seen similar statistics for turbine- vs. cat-related bird deaths, and I have to say that it simply seems like common sense. Cats are much more widespread than turbines, so it seems reasonable to expect that they'd have a greater incidence of fatality.

[csziggy]

12. The birds fly into the towers or into the supporting guy wires

Here is a more scholarly paper; "A Summary and Comparison of Bird Mortality from
Anthropogenic Causes with an Emphasis on Collisions" which includes the Tall Timbers Research Station 28 year long study of bird deaths due to collision with a communications tower. (Tall Timbers was across the road from the tallest TV antenna in this area so used the convenient location for their study. That antenna has since been changed with the advent of digital television - I have not been that way in a long time and don't know if they still have a 1,000+ antenna tower there anymore.)

[FarCenter]

7. I would think that it would be more hazardous to birds

Birds are killed when they fly into obstructions at night. For example, they run into tall buildings and antenna towers.

The hazard to birds is largely dependent on the area of the obstruction that is held aloft. Therefore, the solid disk of the Saphonian will kill more birds than a blade turbine, where the blades form a very small percentage of the disk swept by the blades.

Wind turbines do not "chop up" birds. The blades turn far too slowly for that.

[Jokerman]

5. "those giant wind turbines...they’re just creepy looking"

I had driven through the wind farm on I-65, north of Lafayette IN a couple of times before a friend told me that they reminded him of the giant, marching hammers in Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Now I can't help but think the same thing every time I drive that stretch of highway.

[toby jo]

6. Great news - never heard of bladeless turbines. Lookin for something here on the farm,

live on top of a hill, have wind. Leaning towards water turbine with generator to power the tractor off the creek. Hmm, bladeless water turbine? Better for the fish and whatnot.

Thing looks like a spy device, talking of creepy. Dig the rudder, though.

Cool post Straight, thanks.

[SamReynolds]

8. I can only imagine that the parts wear out faster.

Given that it has to have direct resistance built in.

[marions ghost]

11. All wind turbines are beautiful to me

[Berlum]

13. Cool

nt