Is All Wind Power Equal?

Like solar power, wind power generation is a growing industry that hopes to provide clean, renewable energy to replace fossil fuels and fight global warming. So far the conventional wisdom in the wind power world is the larger the wind turbine, the more power you get. This means that windmills are growing increasingly large and tall. See the picture below that was generated by the US Department of Energy to promote a particularly large wind turbine project called the Lincoln Wind Tower in Euclid, Ohio.

The average wind tower is 150 feet. Almost as tall as the leaning tower of Pisa. The Lincoln Wind Tower in Ohio would be 443 feet tall, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Click here for some of the tallest wind turbines in the world at heights comparable to the Lincoln Wind Tower.

John Dabiri, a CalTech professor of aeronaturical and bioengineering, has a new idea for wind turbines that was inspired by observing the "pattern of spinning vortices that trail fish as they swim." He proposes making the blades vertical like poles on a carousel, and the towers much shorter. Then, positioning the vertical turbines in specific relation to each other they can generate more power by using air currents generated by other vertical turbines around them, just like the "fish vortices." Dabiri says the wind farms built in this fashion would be cheaper to build, quieter, and easier to maintain since they are only about 30 feet tall. They also don't need to be rotated to face the wind.

Prof Dabiri with Vertical axis wind turbines

However, many vertical turbines are still necessary to generate the power produced by just one large, traditional (aka horizontal) wind turbine. The industry still believes that bigger is better, but these smaller, verticle turbines are intriguing. Perhaps the vertical turbines would be more acceptable in areas where the largest objections to wind power generation are noise and aesthetics, or in remote communities where ease of maintenance is important. The US Military is also very interested in Professor Dabiri's idea because traditional horizontal wind turbines can interfere with helicopter operations and radar signatures.

It's nice to think that communities could have options on what is the right way for them to pursue wind power. Way to go Professor Dabiri!