Tripling Wind Energy Yield Via New Wind Augmenter System

Increasing wind energy yield, without tinkering internal components, has always been a matter of height and natural location positioning. If the installation area of the wind turbine is windy enough, or if it is installed at an adequate height, then it is expected to be able to more or less provide constant power as written on its “product label”.

Passive systems may seem a little bit unthinkable for an energy source that produces energy mechanically, but there is actually a new wind energy system that claims to be able to improve wind energy yield without focusing heavily on positioning strategies. In fact, this new Wind Augmenter System claims to even be able to triple power output through passive manipulation of natural wind speeds alone.

The Wind Augmenter System is a passive system that involves the use of wind chambers to channel and increase ambient wind speed. Mass Megawatts Wind Power was the brainchild, designer, and marketer of the concept. The core design involves the installation and use of multi-axis turbines (think of vertical wind turbines turned on their sides) inside specially engineered chambers. The boosted wind is redirected to these chambers, allowing the wind turbines to achieve higher energy yields than simply catching the wind without wind velocity “modifications”. The idea behind the Wind Augmenter system was basically built upon the fact that wind speed can be easily manipulated by simply modifying the areas where it would flow.

Though extensive research, engineering and computer simulations were required to develop the design for their “Augmenter”, no other new technology was used for the concept. Thus in essence, it is not complicated and is quite simple. Building the structure itself is not that different from building a strangely designed home or establishment, and thus is not that expensive (as a wind energy system).

Mass Megawatts claims that the Augmenter System can increase wind speed by up to 70%, and can potentially triple the power output of conventional wind turbines. And with significantly higher energy yields comes considerably lowered costs. The system itself might still be quite expensive, but it should be able to pay for itself at a rate that is substantially faster than your average wind energy system.

One of the primary advantages that their Wind Augmenter System has over other wind energy system designs is that it does not need to be installed at high elevations. Even at areas where it is commonly unfavorable to install wind energy systems, the Augmenter can still provide adequate power equivalent to a tall propeller turbine installed on a high elevation level. Another advantage is that it is quite scalable, although the minimum power value for the smallest Augmenter System is set at around 10 kilowatts.

Despite its technological crudeness, if you look at the design, you would notice that the structure itself is quite complex. I was wondering if maintenance would be as easy as other wind energy systems. But the primary components that need to be maintained here would just be the turbines I guess, which are conveniently placed at the center of the structure.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Kecko via Flickr

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Christian Crisostomo (250 Posts)

Christian Crisostomo is just your average tech geek that loves to see man's newest and most recent technological exploits. He holds great interest in the potentials of green technology, and is enthusiastic about the continuous development of environment-friendly alternative energy.

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