Mid-level wind harvesting solutions for augmenting wind farms sector - Energy - Wind Energy
With over 140 gigawatts available from building out already existing wind farms, Wind Harvesters could change the world of renewable energy as we know it. When fully developed, they would produce enough energy to power 280 million homes (using 5000 kWh per year), replacing 1000 coal-fired power plants. Our turbines can both add to the capacity of existing wind farms and increase the energy output of the existing turbines!
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The Market Potential in Wind Farms
20% of wind farms worldwide have sufficient mid-level wind speeds to add Wind Harvesters under and around existing turbines profitably and beneficially. As of the end of 2020, 20% equates to 140 gigawatts of potential for Wind Harvest. Today, this market represents a $250B worldwide commercial opportunity. Given the pace of new wind farm installations, this opportunity should double or triple over the next ten years.
How was this analysis done?
We mapped locations of worldwide wind farms and used the best available average annual wind speeds to calculate overall potential using a proprietary approach specific to our turbine requirements.
Synergy in Wind Farms
When strategically placed, Wind Harvesters and propeller-type turbines work synergistically to increase each other’s energy output while using land already developed for the tall wind farms, causing minimal incremental environmental impacts. Wind Harvesters can create synergy in wind farms in the following ways:
Closely spaced co-rotating and counter-rotating H-type turbines like Wind Harvesters create wakes that will draw faster wind from higher altitudes toward the ground. This effect increases the energy produced by the tall turbines and allows us to place rows of Wind Harvesters close together in a tall turbine wind farm. This phenomenon is called vertical mixing. Researchers at CalTech, Stanford, Concordia, Oxford Brookes, and other universities have documented and modeled this powerful effect.
- The vortices shed by the straight blades of H-type turbines produce a low-pressure zone behind the turbines. This lower pressure speeds upwind through the rotors of Wind Harvesters and propeller-type turbines.
- The vortices from a field of Wind Harvesters cause vertical mixing and “roughness.” This effect lowers the localized aerodynamic boundary layer. With the boundary layer closer to the ground, faster velocity wind from higher altitude moves into the rotors of the tall propeller-type turbines.
Modeling indicates that adding rows of H-type turbines into a wind farm could increase the taller turbines’ energy output by 10%.
All turbines block some wind and force it to flow around them. This effect increases the speed around the edge of their rotors. By placing a row of Wind Harvesters a short distance downwind of a propeller-type turbine, they will benefit from this increase in wind speed.
How can the blockage effect of Wind Harvesters increase the energy output of tall turbines?
- Some blocked wind flows over the top of a tightly spaced row of Wind Harvesters and increases the “overflow” wind speed.
- The increased wind speed causes the air pressure to lower.
- The now higher pressure difference increases the wind speed moving through the bottom of the blades of the propeller-type turbine.
Capacity Factor Enhancement
Higher capacity factors mean more energy is produced from a project over the course of a year; adding Wind Harvesters beneath and around existing wind turbines can improve the overall wind farm capacity factor without triggering an expansion of the substation’s capacity. The potential increase is significant because most wind farms operate with a 25-40% capacity factor. Wind Harvesters can further boost wind farm capacity factors with batteries and storage, making them more predictable, reliable, and longer-lasting.
The number of Wind Harvesters possible in a Capacity Factor Enhancement project depends on:
- Wind speed on-site
- Economic benefits for propeller-type turbine
- The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
- Production lost from Wind Harvesters when a site is at 100% capacity
- Effect of synergy in the wind farm