Jet Stream Wind Industry – To Catch The Big Wind

By Colin Houghton

Scientists are eyeing the jet stream, an energy source that rages night and day, 365 days a year, just a few miles above our heads. If they can tap into its fierce winds, the world’s entire electrical needs could be met, they say.

 

They believe that the total global energy contained in wind is 100 times the power used by everyone on the planet. If we could tap into just one per cent of that energy, they say it still wouldn’t produce a major adverse effect on the environment. The jet stream is made up of several large currents of high-speed air that rush eastward through the upper atmosphere. Six miles high, the winds have exceeded 300 mph.

Researchers in California and around the world believe huge kite-like wind-power generators could be the solution and they are continuing further work towards a complete solution.

 

By lofting generators into the upper atmosphere, scientists theorize they could capture the power of the jet stream and transmit the electricity along cables back to Earth.

A wind machine, floated into such a high power wind, would transmit electricity on aluminum or copper cables- or  perhaps even through invisible microwave beams- down to power grids, where it would be distributed to homes and businesses. Unlike ground-based wind generators, the high-altitude devices would be too high to be heard and barely visible against the blue sky. That would mean no complaints about the sound of conventional wind turbines, and no visible impact on the environment. Science fantasy or fact?

South Africa’s first commercial wind farm

South Africa’s first commercial wind farm, the Darling wind farm, began generating in May 2008 with four turbines, each producing 1.3 MW

By Colin Houghton

A study by Frost & Sullivan:  ”Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent” was released at an African growth, innovation and leadership conference in Cape Town last month (August).  According to this Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic, chronic power problems impede growth and productivity in more than 30 African countries. Inadequate generation capacity, limited electrification, low demand for power, unreliable service, and skyrocketing prices cause serious problems in the sector. Countries would have to spend $40-billion annually over 10 years and take decisive steps to improve the efficiency of power utilities in order to remove these challenges.

But these very challenges present massive potential for renewable energy development, primarily driven by the need to provide electrification to remote communities. The analysis notes that over the next ten years, renewable energy initiatives will be dominated by wind powerprojects, such as the Ashegoda wind farm in Ethiopia  and Tanzania’s Singida wind farm.

A wind farm in the Ngong hills on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya

It is ironic that Africa is endowed with both fossil and renewable energy resources that could more than adequately cover its energy needs, yet remains the most poorly electrified continent in the world. The report said “The proportion of people without electricity in Africa is higher than anywhere else on the planet, with as little as 5% of the population having direct access to electricity in some countries.”
 

Things are already happening. In West Africa a wind farm that will supply a quarter of the electricity needs of the Cape Verde islands started operations this August.  

The 25.5MW Cabeolica wind farm will provide power to four islands in the archipelago, which is 570km off the coast of West Africa. The islands have a population of around 500,000 with just under 400,000 tourists visiting annually.

The Cape Verde project

The islands have world-class wind resources of 10m/s, as they lie in the Trade Winds belt, although that also means they can be subject to hurricanes. More than one fifth of the population of the former Portuguese colony is desperately poor, living on less than a pound a day. The development of wind projects will reduce reliance on expensive imported diesel and fuel oil.

Location of Cape Verde islands

LoopWing wind turbine

This Japanese design, the LoopWing wind turbine, was unveiled at the 2006 Japanese Eco-Products Exhibition. At that time, it was said that the turbine was aimed at homeowners, and featured a unique wing design that operated with low vibration and as wind speeds as low as 1.6 m/sec.

Efficiency specifications were less detailed. It is claimed that the turbine rotates at wind speeds as low as 2m/s while achieving over 40% co-efficiency at around 8m/s in wind tunnel experiments. A year later LoopWing won the Tokyo Technical Venture Award 2007, a prize given by Tokyo Metropolitan Government to those venture businesses attempting to bring about innovative technologies and products with the aim of vitalizing Tokyo and creating employment in the city.

The LoopWing uses  loop-shaped blades – helping to overcome problems suffered by conventional wind turbines, such as the noises created by tip vortex, vibration, relatively short life span, and the heavy weight of the turbine. As the turbine’s blade is looped, it has no pointed tip to create a vortex, reducing noise and drag force. The technology uses waterproof oil-bath bearings and a sealing system from marine engineering, achieving what the manufacturer’s say is 20-year design life.

Each blade and the main shaft are connected at two ends; with the tip, they form a three-point truss structure where each point is supported against two others to produce an increased tolerance to vibration.  It’s also claimed that because some people have an aversion to the rotating knife-like blades of traditional wind turbines, the LoopWing’s slow-rotation and unusual appearance goes some way towards mitigating this.

Installation at Gala Aoi Umi Corporation in Okinawa

 At the Renewable Energy World event last year, one of the models of LoopWing type wind powergenerator called the TRONC was shown. It features a hybrid solar and wind energy generator and it doesn’t need extra source of energy. The TRONC has a small windmill and sunlight panel mounted on top plus the familiar LoopWing style blade, 1.5 meters in diameter.  The South Korean company LoopWing Korea, is planning to create and market this hybrid renewable energy generator.     

                                                              

Unusually, LoopWing and the world famous craft kit manufacturer Tamiya came together to produce a craft model that lets you see the LoopWing in miniature action and see how it works.

The turbine drives a generator that then charges a little model car that plugs onto the top of the generator body. The energy is collected in a super capacitor that can then run the car for about 3 minutes on a full charge.