Wind farms

Lets see if I get this right, Jim. With 100 baldes it would take a large hub for them. Lets say 5 feet. Wheather it had 2 or more blades the swept area would still be a 205 feet diameter circle or 33,006.435 square feet.

205 squared = 42025 x .7854 = swept area
I think I am right, any way.

Rambler, I have wondered if you couldn't build an hour glass shaped funnel, with the rear section larger than the intake , well try to picture this.

Say a mill with a 20' diameter set of blades like the old timers used for pumping water. More aerodynamic, of course, with an intake on the funnel about 40 feet wide and the exhaust end of it about 50 or 60 feet to create a vacuum on the back side to suck the disturbed air flow out at a faster pace.

If I ever get rich, (LMAO), I would like to try it.
You would only have blades that were 8.5 to 9 feet, which would be less expensive than larger blades because of the balanceing and strenght required, and you would only have about 315 feet of swept area, but you would be catching over 1200 feet of air flow.

It seems to me that it would be like a hose pipe with a nossle on it, and create more pressure and a faster airflow on the blades, making them more powerfull in low wind areas.

That is just an idea I have toyed with, because we don't have a lot of sustained wind where I live.
Stupid idea, huh??
Dennis

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keep kicking the ball
it won't stop rolling

Dennis

A venturi?
Sounds like an interesting concept but until I drink some coffee my brain won't draw this picture for me...

If this worked it could but applied the same way for hydro power, no?

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dennis,

you say you have experience with altitude and it's wind. now take your funnel idea and make it a true funnel. then flip it wide side down. i don't see why they don't design buildings to use the natural thermals from heat rising to generate electricity. if they were to encase every new high rise building in a glass shell and funnel the top, they could have a turbine on each new building.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

The 2 wind farms mentioned in the initial posts are proposed to be in Stephenson County. Looks like there is a public forum tonight for one of the wind farms and one next week for the other.

One wind farm is proposing 356' high with an output of 70 MW to service 21,000 homes. They will be situated at least 500' - 1000' from homes. The other farm will have 364' towers, putting out 100 MW to servie 25,000 homes and no closer than 800' from a residence.

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I've been around them, in them -surprise chance to tour one!
Most of them, at least the news ones are pretty quiet unless you are right under them, then it sounds like a small lear jet winding up due to the turbine speeds, but if you are a couple blocks away, you really have to strain to hear them.

I think they are fun to watch as well, the strobing thing, would get pretty old, depending on where you where at, out here, they are in corn & bean fields and they look good there.

It can be more efficent to take a thin slice of wind energy from that swept area with few blades, rather than try to take almost all of it with many blades.

The larger the swept area, the less blades one wants doing the sweeping.

There is a 'sweet spot' of efficiency, and it takes many years of calculus & geometry to be able to figure it out.

It is kinda the opposite of water turbines - used to be water wheels were very big & slow to capture energy - with the new turbines, they have many more, small blades turning very fast - relative to energy harvested.

I'm a simple dirt farmer.

--->Paul