Flower Turbines?

[Christof Stork]

Do people have insight into the new Flower Turbines? https://flowerturbines.com/technology/
Yes, vertical axis turbines have problems, but this seems to address them. They are being aggressive with fund raising, but there is little available data on the performance of their turbines.

[Rob Beckers]

Christof, looking at the pictures this appears to be just another Savonius type wind turbine. It will have the same issues as the many times Savonius turbines have been attempted to be sold commercially: Low efficiency, high price for the power/energy output, long-term mechanical challenges due to the loading of various parts. All the same caveats that apply to VAWTs still apply here, despite possible denial through the marketing media: VAWTs do not produce any better in turbulent air vs. HAWTs. VAWTs won't work better (or at all) on short towers vs. HAWTs, both do very poorly under those conditions. The 'catches wind from any direction' argument, which works just the same for HAWTs (they all catch wind from any direction).

Paper (or a Web page) is patient. Companies can write anything they like. At the end of the day without solid third-party test results I would be very cautious to believe anything written about these turbines.

Ask yourself, if the various exotic turbine models really solved all the problems they claim to solve, why is the more serious wind energy world still stuck on HAWT-type wind turbines? Is everyone else just too stupid to see all those great (claimed) benefits?

By the way, Savonius turbines are great a a DIY project! They are relatively easy to build.

-RoB-

[Peter Klaassen]

A brief look at the website power output curve showed data up to 4 m/sec. That is only about 8 knots. My understanding of wind power production is you need at least 6 m/sec. for it to be worthwhile. As Rob has said in the past, vertical turbines are for art at best. Strong winds need strong turbines and there are not many home sized turbines built strong enough.
Pete

[Ralph Day]

Going to tell us about "strong" wind turbines Peter? :cry:

Have you updated/grid tied your house yet?

Ralph

[Peter Klaassen]

Morning Ralph,
Are you taking shots at my poor old Windspot? I have to say I have had struggled to keep it going. The new version is E-5 and I am looking at it to replace the Windspot. I won’t be putting up a VAWT. We are still off grid though with a fair amount of generator time this year. How much is the base line hydro per month now Ralph?
Pete

[Ralph Day]

Hi Peter
The base cost for a H1 service is about $40 per month. Then there's the actual usage and the charges for using the usage. With us on the low end of consumption (say 300kwhr per month) the cost per Kwhr is about 25cents per Kwhr . A 360kwhr usage costs $93. An right now there's no time of use variance in costs. With TOU it would be somewhat higher. The off peak is 12cents, the peak is 21cents per kwhr.

You find lots to do with grid power, like charging your batteries, power tools etc. I replaced my big Surrettes with some Surrette S550's (L16). Most of the year I run on HBX (high battery transfer). The low setpoint of 50v connection occurs, once up to 53v it disconnects from H1. In the summer I will cycle them, but in winter there's just not enough sun and wind.

Over alll Hydro One is cheaper than diesel per Kwhr, but not once you factor in the usage charges...but someone else does the maintenance. :push:

Ralph