Underground Windmill

sawmill
sawmill Solar Expert Posts: 93 ✭✭✭
in Solar Skeptics, Hype, & Scams Corner #1
Just when I thought we had heard it all. This underground windmill is 280% more efficient than current models. They state that birds and bats have nothing to fear from this new technology.

www.sheerwinds.com
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Underground Windmill

    But what about the poor earth worms? What about ground living creatures like moles and such? What are these people thinking?
    Not Under My Back Yard!
    Pour on the coal and oil, I want electricity and I want it now! :D
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  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Underground Windmill

    took a bit of 'follow the links ' (not much on their website) but got a good description out of these 2 articles

    http://www.mn2020hindsight.org/view/underground-wind-turbines-you-betcha
    http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/12/wind-power-unlike-any-other-on-horizon/

    very interesting but to me it appears to be large scale for a long time...
     
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  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Underground Windmill

    I would worry the intake horn could create a low frequency oscillation resulting in a very powerful "brown note". :p
    http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_brownnote.php
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Underground Windmill

    i'll bet it scares away ground hogs too.

    if the first description i saw they used a cone faced into the wind it would force the wind to that point below and would exit on the ground. this one would need something to keep it facing the wind like a tail, but would work imo. to me the 2nd link as shown can't do any thing as there's nothing forcing the wind down into it as it would just bypass it and i see no exit that isn't being acted upon with the same equal force so the 2nd one is just an oversized inground ground hog chaser.
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  • nsaspook
    nsaspook Solar Expert Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Underground Windmill

    This is a "WAG" but it looks like a horn tapered to the generator , on top of the main horn is another horn (open at the bottom) with a gap feeding into the first horn. In the gap between the two horns the wind would create a vortex that would create a pressure gradient from the top of the second horn and the feed throat of the main horn. This pressure gradient would start the movement of air into the feed tube to the generator.

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  • jagec
    jagec Solar Expert Posts: 157 ✭✭
    #7
    Re: Underground Windmill
    sawmill wrote: »
    Just when I thought we had heard it all. This underground windmill is 280% more efficient than current models. They state that birds and bats have nothing to fear from this new technology.

    www.sheerwinds.com

    Wouldn't the bats try to roost in the dark, cave-like tunnels, and then get sucked into the turbines and killed when the wind blows?
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #8
    Re: Underground Windmill
    jagec wrote: »
    Wouldn't the bats try to roost in the dark, cave-like tunnels, and then get sucked into the turbines and killed when the wind blows?
    That's how the bearings get greased.
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  • SolaRevolution
    SolaRevolution Solar Expert Posts: 410 ✭✭
    #9
    Re: Underground Windmill
    nsaspook wrote: »
    In the gap between the two horns the wind would create a vortex that would create a pressure gradient from the top of the second horn and the feed throat of the main horn. This pressure gradient would start the movement of air into the feed tube to the generator.

    This is a great example of how a vortex can cause a pressure gradient:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgFvyTtxBhI&feature=related
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  • dataman19
    dataman19 Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭
    #10
    Re: Underground Windmill

    I swear - I don't know how you guys keep coming up with this stuff...
    This can't be very efficient... Since air is like water and electricity - it takes the least resistive path...
    There is a really big difference in the mechanical force generated by 30-60 foot radius propeller blades and a 60 foot cone.
    ..
    Has anyone seen any working prototypes?
    I am leary of this - but trying to keep an open mind - ya never know, they may actually be able to pull that rabbit out of that little itty bitty hat..
    Dave
    Phoenix, AZ
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #11
    Re: Underground Windmill
    dataman19 wrote: »
    I swear - I don't know how you guys keep coming up with this stuff...
    This can't be very efficient... Since air is like water and electricity - it takes the least resistive path...
    There is a really big difference in the mechanical force generated by 30-60 foot radius propeller blades and a 60 foot cone.
    ..
    Has anyone seen any working prototypes?
    I am leary of this - but trying to keep an open mind - ya never know, they may actually be able to pull that rabbit out of that little itty bitty hat..
    Dave
    Phoenix, AZ
    Quote Bullwinkle: "I gotta get a new hat." :D
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  • solarix
    solarix Solar Expert Posts: 713 ✭✭
    #12
    Re: Underground Windmill

    I'm not buying the "works like a hydro dam" analogy. Hydro dams work by converting the potential energy contained in the "head" of the water into power to spin a turbine. Air turbines have very little pressure to work with - the potential energy in wind is kinetic, held in the wind's speed. If you "dam it up", you get very little conversion to pressure and if you try to redirect the flow, drag losses are very high. Attempting to concentrate the wind and increase its speed, you need something on the order of Tehachepi pass to get a good venturi effect going.
    I like the turbine kite idea that does have successful prototypes working at altitudes where there is real wind.
    http://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_on_kites_as_the_future_of_renewable_energy.html
    I also imagine a kite that pulls on its tether in a oscillating manner to a generator located on the ground. Sort of like a pull starter on your lawnmower.
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