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Design to the Rescue
Hi all
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Niels LaWhite, chief scientist for Second Wind and ask him a few questions about Wind Energy. I was hoping that he would give me some guidance with my project, instead he opened my eyes to the current wind energy situation in America and how I can help.
One thing that Niels told me which I found very interesting is that the Wind turbines that we use today are based on Danish designs. When the American's first started building turbines they believed they had a HUGE advantage because at the time America was the world leader in helicopter technology--it was far from the truth. The mechanics that go into making a helicopter work are all controllable forces. The blades spin and generate a controllable amount of lift. Well wind is as chaotic and turbulent a force as they come. So when you try an use tight gear boxes and finely tuned gear ratios that work at say 25mph winds, what happens when their is a gust of 40mphs? The turbine breaks!
The Danish on the other hand had a completely different approach. They had a government policy that helped inventors and engineers who were interested in wind tech get started. The government provided technical schematics and aid as a starting point. Then when these inventors modified the design, before they could release the product and make money, the government would take the turbine and test it and work with the inventor to improve the design. You see the Danish government didn't want any turbines to reflect poorly upon the country that made them. Smart huh?
I made this to explain the rest of the technical side of our discussion.
Wind turbines can be very cost effective energy generating machines as long as the due diligence was done up front. Niels said that his general rule is, "if you like where you live, it would be a bad place for a turbine." 20mph winds have enough power to open a car door, so sorry to everyone who thinks that they are going to save the world by putting up a turbine on your house (me including).
So how does design come to save the day? I'll tell you. As a designer it is my job to inform people in clear and visually interesting ways. I believe that if people understood a bit more about what goes into make a
turbine effective they would see them as a real energy source and not some backyard bs. So I am going to make a poster series and maybe a flash movie or two that inform and inspire.
What do you all think? Any ideas?
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Niels LaWhite, chief scientist for Second Wind and ask him a few questions about Wind Energy. I was hoping that he would give me some guidance with my project, instead he opened my eyes to the current wind energy situation in America and how I can help.
One thing that Niels told me which I found very interesting is that the Wind turbines that we use today are based on Danish designs. When the American's first started building turbines they believed they had a HUGE advantage because at the time America was the world leader in helicopter technology--it was far from the truth. The mechanics that go into making a helicopter work are all controllable forces. The blades spin and generate a controllable amount of lift. Well wind is as chaotic and turbulent a force as they come. So when you try an use tight gear boxes and finely tuned gear ratios that work at say 25mph winds, what happens when their is a gust of 40mphs? The turbine breaks!
The Danish on the other hand had a completely different approach. They had a government policy that helped inventors and engineers who were interested in wind tech get started. The government provided technical schematics and aid as a starting point. Then when these inventors modified the design, before they could release the product and make money, the government would take the turbine and test it and work with the inventor to improve the design. You see the Danish government didn't want any turbines to reflect poorly upon the country that made them. Smart huh?
I made this to explain the rest of the technical side of our discussion.
Wind turbines can be very cost effective energy generating machines as long as the due diligence was done up front. Niels said that his general rule is, "if you like where you live, it would be a bad place for a turbine." 20mph winds have enough power to open a car door, so sorry to everyone who thinks that they are going to save the world by putting up a turbine on your house (me including).
So how does design come to save the day? I'll tell you. As a designer it is my job to inform people in clear and visually interesting ways. I believe that if people understood a bit more about what goes into make a
turbine effective they would see them as a real energy source and not some backyard bs. So I am going to make a poster series and maybe a flash movie or two that inform and inspire.
What do you all think? Any ideas?
Views: 65
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Comment by Wintermute on April 3, 2010 at 6:15pm
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thanks sunny
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Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 4, 2010 at 12:49am
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Hi Wintermute,
Two things - one, consider interactive flash - I know my kids would spend all kinds of time fiddling with wind speed and blade choice if they could. Just a thought. My girls fight over my wife's Ipod Touch to see who gets to do which educational activity ...
Two, if you are into wind, you might enjoy Janine Benyus talking about biomimicry (for example, they designed a better wind turbine blade using design inspiration from whale fins).
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Comment by sunnydupree on April 4, 2010 at 3:27am
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There are windmills all along the I35 corridor that splits america with plans to make more. I believe that It may be part of what T.Boone Pickens is up too. I will look and see. Mr. Pickens had a plan to put like 677 wind turbines along the corridor,what they called a wind farm, he could not get a loan to do the plan blaming the bad economy but says that the he will still place all the turbines in other locations. He is going to back natural gas as an alternative. I thought he was a sell out, he spent so much money though. http://green.autoblog.com/2009/07/08/t-boone-pickens-wind-farm-plan...
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yeah its too bad about that.
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Comment by Shane M. Wheeler on April 5, 2010 at 1:51am
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I know I've killed a lot of time watching you-tube vids, and one that is both entertaining and informative could make a big impact on public support for such systems. Good allegory/metaphor demonstration stuff would be useful, likening wind to oil or other resources only found in certain geographic areas. Get people's heads wrapped around it.
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Comment by Amos Meeks on April 5, 2010 at 11:01am
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Wintermute, did you ask him about the bird wings?
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@Amos-Dang I forgot, Ill include that in the email I am going to send him.
Does anyone else have questions for Niels?
@Shane--Good ideas!
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Comment by gmoke on April 14, 2010 at 2:01am
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I know someone who works at Second Wind and have been following their work for over a decade.
There are wind turbines on a Harvard building in Harvard Square and a couple more on a parking garage by Harvard Business School. The Museum of Science also has installed a couple of turbines.
Design for wind turbines are more about financial needs than power production these days. Wind in the USA has always gone up and down with the Federal incentives. A reliable financial and tax structure would go a long way to making wind power more viable here. One example is the Fox Islands Wind Project in Maine. Some of the production tax credits they used to finance their turbines may be going away. This is not good for Martha's Vineyard which is considering a similar project.
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