Maglev Wind Turbines

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sprite
  • 16 comments
  • 3,118 views

Sprite

Beanbag Brain
Premium
Messages
8,071
United Kingdom
Horbury, West Yorkshire
Messages
GTP_Sprite
These things look awsome, and working for a power company this heralds some cool tech to solve a big problem.

maglev1.jpg


Renewable energy produced from the wind has garnered much attention and support in recent years but is often criticized for its low output and lack of reliability. But now a super power wind turbine has come along that may be just what the renewable energy industry needs. The MagLev wind turbine, which was first unveiled at the Wind Power Asia exhibition in Beijing, is expected take wind power technology to the next level with magnetic levitation.

maglev2.jpg


Magnetic levitation is an extremely efficient system for wind energy. Here’s how it works: the vertically oriented blades of the wind turbine are suspended in the air above the base of the machine, replacing the need for ball bearings. The turbine uses “full-permanent” magnets, not electromagnets — therefore, it does not require electricty to run. The full-permanent magnet system employs neodymium (”rare earth”) magnets and there is no energy loss through friction. This also helps reduce maintenance costs and increases the lifespan of the generator.

Maglev wind turbines have several advantages over conventional wind turbines. For instance, they’re able to use winds with starting speeds as low as 1.5 meters per second (m/s). Also, they could operate in winds exceeding 40 m/s. Currently, the largest conventional wind turbines in the world produce only five megawatts of power. However, one large maglev wind turbine could generate one gigawatt of clean power, enough to supply energy to 750,000 homes. It would also increase generation capacity by 20% over conventional wind turbines and decrease operational costs by 50%. If that isn’t enough, the maglev wind turbines will be operational for about 500 years!

Construction began on the world’s largest production site for maglev wind turbines in central China on November 5, 2007. Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology has invested 400 million yuan in building this facility, which will produce maglev wind turbines with capacities ranging from 400 to 5,000 Watts. In the US, Arizona-based MagLev Wind Turbine Technologies will be manufacturing these turbines. Headed by long-time renewable energy researcher Ed Mazur, the company claims that it will be able to deliver clean power for less than one cent per kilowatt hour with this new technology. It also points out that building a single giant maglev wind turbine would reduce construction and maintenance costs and require much less land than hundreds of conventional turbines. The estimated cost of building this colossal structure is $53 million.

Maglev-Wind-Turbine-Technologies.jpg
 
Cool.👍 Looks like a cone air filter on a car.

I wonder why it only provides 250K more homes with power when it's equal to 1000 regular windmills. Shouldn't that number be alot higher?
 
Just one question, how does it turn any dynamo's etc if the blades are not physically connected to anything (due to Maglev separation)?

I just see so many birds getting sucked into that thing :lol: BIRD COLANDER!

Neat Idea though..... and it should be quieter because of the magnets and also tower (rotary) fans are always quieter than normal fans.

Robin

EDIT - Wont such big magnets effect things badly?, like surrounding wild animals and people? Birds GPS systems will go off and result..... more blended birds!
 
Wow that is awesome looking building lol.

Very interesting to see where this will lead. and how many will get built etc.
 
Holy hell that looks cool, I can't imagine how awesome they'd look at full speed. Perhaps somebody could put some lights on the end of the blades? :dopey:

I wonder why it only provides 250K more homes with power when it's equal to 1000 regular windmills. Shouldn't that number be alot higher?

I think it means that 1000 wind turbines are required to power 500,000 homes, vs. 1 maglev turbine that can power 750,000 homes.

Robin ///////
Just one question, how does it turn any dynamo's etc if the blades are not physically connected to anything (due to Maglev separation)?

Yeah, I guess the blades repel each other, so as the blades one one side of the turbine are pushed by the wind, they repel the blades on the opposite side, and the whole set of blades spin.
 
I'll believe it when I see it. I'm doubting I will ever see one of these on the interstate unless I'm in Denmark.

It would be cool if it was big enough to put offices or something in though.

What about sizes? I would guess that at least at first they wouldn't make any the size shown in the pictures. Maybe we will see 100 or 200 foot tall ones? Those seem much more practical, and put them in remote areas that are windy.

I wonder why it only provides 250K more homes with power when it's equal to 1000 regular windmills. Shouldn't that number be alot higher?

I wonder why it provides any more homes. If it is equal to 1000 windmills, shouldn't it be able to provide for what 1000 windmills does? That's like saying a prius uses half the gas of a suburban yet goes three times as far on the same amount of gas...

Just one question, how does it turn any dynamo's etc if the blades are not physically connected to anything (due to Maglev separation)?

My guess is that the supports might be magnetic but there still is a direct shaft to the generator(s). Kinda like if they made a frictionless engine, there wouldn't be anything holding the engine back except the resistance from the tires on the road.
 
Do the blades actuate as it spins or something? Because what I'm seeing in that picture has a symmetric drag profile. What makes it spin??
 
Do the blades actuate as it spins or something? Because what I'm seeing in that picture has a symmetric drag profile. What makes it spin??

It looks like the blades are curved. But it's not that much. You bring up a good point. It looks like a lot of energy gets lost due to drag.
 
Cheese and rice!!! How big is that thing???

Something about it, other than the apparent size in the pics, is triggering my "something for nothing" BS alarm, but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. :indiff:
 
Something about it.. is triggering my.. BS alarm
Same here. It seems like a pretty spectacular claim to say that these things can produce that much energy from wind power, and spectacular claims require spectacular evidence - something that is in suspiciously short supply, not to mention that only a handful of the same few websites seem to be know anything about it at all... that and the fact that the Arizona-based company have appointed a man called "Mr. Blow" as Chief Consulting Engineer :lol:

The artist's impressions of the turbine are clearly a little bit of 'artistic license' (or BS), if the figures they mention are true/accurate anyway. Assuming the base is square, if it occupies about 100 acres, that means it will be some 630 m wide. If it's twice as tall as it is wide, as per the picture, that would make those things 1260 m, or 4000 ft tall - or twice the height of the tallest buildings in the world. Even assuming that the '100 acres' figure takes into account a large amount of surrounding 'space', you're still talking about a structure hundreds if not a couple of thousand feet tall! And they want to build these for how much each?

philly cheese
I'll believe it when I see it.
Same here.
 
The artist's impressions of the turbine are clearly a little bit of 'artistic license' (or BS), if the figures they mention are true/accurate anyway. Assuming the base is square, if it occupies about 100 acres, that means it will be some 630 m wide. If it's twice as tall as it is wide, as per the picture, that would make those things 1260 m, or 4000 ft tall - or twice the height of the tallest buildings in the world. Even assuming that the '100 acres' figure takes into account a large amount of surrounding 'space', you're still talking about a structure hundreds if not a couple of thousand feet tall! And they want to build these for how much each?

And what would this thing weigh? If it will be as tall as the artist's impression, wouldn't they have to make it out of something like cement? And if that is the case, I think too much energy would be wasted trying to get the thing going in a breeze. I really can't see these things being any taller than 200 feet and made of metal. Otherwise too much energy will be lost trying to gain momentum.
 
Yeah, I guess the blades repel each other, so as the blades one one side of the turbine are pushed by the wind, they repel the blades on the opposite side, and the whole set of blades spin.
That wouldn't work since each blade would always have two equal forces pushing from either side of the blade, so the net repulsion would be zero hence defeating the purpose of making the blades magnetic at all!

I'm not getting how the wind energy driving the turbine is converted into electrical energy and what the purpose of the magnets are. There is no information about how the wind energy is converted into electrical energy, or what the thing is supposed to be made from.

Either way, it sounds like they're pretty far from achieving or even attempting to build them anywhere near the size or efficiency implied in those pics. The article says they're only building these things to be capable of producing the same amount of power as existing wind turbines (0.4 - 5 MW)...
 
I'm not getting how the wind energy driving the turbine is converted into electrical energy and what the purpose of the magnets are. There is no information about how the wind energy is converted into electrical energy, or what the thing is supposed to be made from.

Now I get what you were talking about. My guess is that the magnets are at the bottom of the blades, holding them from touching that big disk thing on the bottom and not creating any friction. But the blades and the top part all spin and drive a shaft that is connected to a generator in the middle. But then a second set of magnets would be needed to eliminate friction from the top which would probably be "resting" on the center column thing because I would imagine the generator(s) would be in the center. And the magnets on the bottom are not going to be enough to hold the whole assembly on course to resist the wind from blowing the top off. They are going to need something pretty strong to counter the obvious lateral force of the wind.

_|
_|_ = Fixed
_|

__
/_\ = Revolving

My best attempt at drawing this using text:dunce:.

Maybe there are better engineers like Azure or BL that can explain it a little better.
 
That wouldn't work since each blade would always have two equal forces pushing from either side of the blade, so the net repulsion would be zero hence defeating the purpose of making the blades magnetic at all!

I'm not getting how the wind energy driving the turbine is converted into electrical energy and what the purpose of the magnets are. There is no information about how the wind energy is converted into electrical energy, or what the thing is supposed to be made from

That's what really triggers my BS alarm here. The thing doesn't even look like it does anything. It looks like the largest paperweight ever constructed. There is definitely not enough information to convince me that it works.
 
The idea sounds great, but this looks just like another exhaust injection system to me.
 
Couldn't small ones be built from carbon fiber or something (nanotubes should be ready too) and then stacked? That would make a lot more sense.

Actually, this would make a lot more sense if it was topless. The wings would have to be actuated to where they could adapt to pick up wind from any direction. I should draw a diagram.

It would be really funny if they went for a completely frictionless design and put the wind generator in a giant vacuum. :lol:

edit: Check it out:



If you design it with a top, you can stack gens and probably turbines to however high you want.
 
Back