By Andrew Liszewski
A company called Leviathan Energy has come up with a clever way to improve the efficiency of wind turbines, without making any modifications to the turbines or propellers themselves. Using aerodynamic modeling, Leviathan designed a special plastic and metal skirt structure that wraps around the base of the wind turbine and directs the flow of the air to the critical areas of the blades. The system is guaranteed to increase the power output of a wind turbine by at least 15-30%, and at lower wind speeds (0-6 meters per second) the gains can be as high as 150%.
Now the Wind Energizer system isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Each skirt has to be custom designed and built based on the height of the wind turbine, the length of the blades and the wind conditions where it’s installed, but Leviathan Energy claims the estimated period of return on the investment is just 4-5 years.
[ Leviathan Energy Wind Energizer ] VIA [ CleanTechnica ]