Power from turbulent wind

[Barrowman]

Has anyone come across a design for a generator which takes advantage of turbulent wind? What I have been told generally is that low level turbines don't work well because they rely on the air not being turbulent. Looking out of a window in my home I see a tree with limbs moving around in the wind. Could it be that these could be rigged up to coils with magnets in them so generating power that way? Maybe something such as a Joule thief and some regulator circuit could be used to keep the output voltage more even. Just something to perhaps examine.

[Robl]

There's probably a way of getting small amounts of power, useful for some monitoring or similar activity. Think wearable technologies, or "energy harvesting" (google it) - there's all sorts of individual piezo based or magnet/coil based solutions out there, to make lights flash, or allow data gathering.
I don't think it will gather enough to feed usefully into the grid, but it might to make art or some other local off grid thing.

[Piwoslaw]

Wind turbines with a verticle axis can take advantage of wind which rapidly changes direction.

Here is one of many innovative designs:
New type of VAWT

[Barrowman]

Thanks for your input. I live in a village in Lincolnshire and I have no area big enough to fix a large Vwat and that one looked very good. So now I wonder if I could build something like that but on a much smaller scale I could perhaps get at least some useful power. I'm still considering building what you might call and artificial tree which I would try to optimise to give the best output.

[Robl]

There's a company in the UK with smaller VAWTs, they have a video showing them retrofitted to lamp-posts on a motorway central reservation. I'm not sure if they have any in that location yet, but they have a trial in London at the O2 arena.

https://alpha-311.com/

[Barrowman]

Originally Posted by Robl

There's a company in the UK with smaller VAWTs, they have a video showing them retrofitted to lamp-posts on a motorway central reservation. I'm not sure if they have any in that location yet, but they have a trial in London at the O2 arena.

https://alpha-311.com/

Yes I have heard of them and seen it in a news item as well. I think they will probably work quite well. However we need to bear in mind that the wind speed is likely to be quite high having been generated by cars passing at 70+ mph

[Robaroni]

Originally Posted by Barrowman

Thanks for your input. I live in a village in Lincolnshire and I have no area big enough to fix a large Vwat and that one looked very good. So now I wonder if I could build something like that but on a much smaller scale I could perhaps get at least some useful power. I'm still considering building what you might call and artificial tree which I would try to optimise to give the best output.

The problem is the smaller you get the less energy you capture. VAWTs are already on the low side of that scale so don't expect too much.

It's a lot of fun though so if you want to do it to learn or just have fun VAWTs make that easier than HAWTs.

The benefits of VAWTS are that they capture winds from any direction, they don't require furling systems and they don't require yokes to keep the wires from twisting.

Don't expect them to perform like HAWTs manufacturers like to promote, they won't. Most of those people embellish their figures way out of spec.

[Zwerius]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Wind turbines with a verticle axis can take advantage of wind which rapidly changes direction.

Here is one of many innovative designs:
New type of VAWT

This is only true for changing directions in the horizontal plane. But many times turbulent winds do not only vary in the horizontal but also in the vertical plane.
So partly, inefficiencies keep existing.