Breakthrough Tech Solves Wind Power's BIGGEST Problem!

this video is sponsored by VIN fast the worldwide  thirst for electricity is absolutely immense and   with people like me opt in to ditch natural gas in  favor of heat pumps and driving electric cars that   demand is only going to increase I talk about  solar all the time but global wind generation   is about twice that of solar according to our  world and data in 2019. studies even suggest   that offshore wind energy alone could power the  entire world in fact 80 percent of the world's   wind resources is offshore in deep Waters so why  isn't every country building offshore wind farms   as fast as they can and why aren't they everywhere  when you think about wind turbines you're probably   picturing something like this massive horizontal  axis wind turbines or hawts but a company called   Hydro wind energy believes that they have a  novel solution to the offshore wind problem   by using these vertical access wind turbines but  some very interesting properties eighty percent of   the world's wind resource is available offshore  not unsure the question is ultimately how do we   harness that and turn it into a usable form of  energy our approach is that we're using wind   solely for mechanical lift but before we get into  that let's talk about conventional offshore wind   turbines if we look at offshore wind speed data  70 kilometers off the coast of Rona in Scotland   here's what an hourly average for the entire year  looks like first of all it should be pretty clear   just how variable and intermittent wind speeds  really are but if we average it by season we   can get a little more clarity interestingly the  strongest wind speeds come in Winter which is   good news because that's when solar energy is at  its lowest and before you think the wind speeds   are super constant throughout the day remember  this is an average this is the first major issue   of offshore wind it's unpredictable and varies  throughout the day there's no way to increase   or decrease production to match what people are  actually using or even know what you can expect   hour by hour Spanish German wind giant Seaman  gamessa is preparing to deploy 60 of its latest   generation turbines of this variety by 2024. each  of the 60 turbines will produce 14.7 megawatts   which the world record they'll feature blades that  are 108 meters long about the size of the football   or soccer field and a rotor diameter of 222 meters  about 45 Tesla Model S's parked bumper to bumper   it's pretty mind-boggling stuff there are issues  though as cost increased dramatically as the blade   size increases both in larger molds and cast  to create the blades but also the logistics of   larger support towers and anchoring them safely  to the sea floor using monopiles a monopod is a   steel cylinder piled into the sea floor by a  special hydraulic ram as these wind turbines   continue to grow in size these monopoles will  have to get bigger too to support that massive   size and resulting moment of inertia now while  there are some floating platforms being worked   on these turbines will largely be limited to about  50 meter C depths which will restrict where they   can be installed the second problem with offshore  wind turbines is that they aren't really able to   harness the entirety of the wind's potential  large wind turbines like these require about 5   meter per second air speeds to start spinning and  have to shut down when wind speeds reach about 25   meters per second their ideal operating range is  around 10 to 15 meters per second and that's where   the gearing generators and Power Electronics  are sized to operate more modern turbines like   the Siemens commissa 14.7 megawatt turbines  make use of the technology called high wind   ride through which will help with this but that's  a topic for another day speaking of another day   we have a very important message from our sponsor  this week vinfast so I first saw the VIN fast at   the New York Auto Show and now they're opening  up locations all along California and on July   14th they'll be opening up these showrooms so if  you're interested in checking out one of the VIN   fast cars now is the perfect time to go sit in  it and just see how it fits you see if you have   a showroom near where you live especially here  in California and if you don't they're gonna   be opening up more locations in the next couple  of months for me the vf9 is the one I want and   the reason is we still have an eight-seater gas  SUV and the vf9 could replace that it has that   third row of seating and it's tens of thousands  of dollars cheaper than any other EV SUV with   a third row you can buy in America and with our  seven dollar gas prices it would pay for itself   pretty quickly so if you're interested checking  out Vin fast check out one of their new showrooms   that are opening here in California they've got  six locations as of July 14th more to come in   the future and go check it out and see if it fits  your family and your lifestyle huge thank you to   vinfast and you for supporting the show being  so massive these turbines actually affect the   laminar flow of air impacting other turbines  downwind in an offshore Farm I had a chance to   chat with Mark spieler at Nvidia a company doing  amazing things using digital twins Ai and computer   simulation to determine optimal turbine placement  we are leveraged a lot in the design and build   not only of the wind turbines themselves but also  in identifying the best place for placement once   they're out in the field and then optimizing  the wind weight coming off of uh of a turbine   not only for individual optimization of a single  turbine but in a perfect world how do we optimize   the entire Wind Farm what we're seeing with the  increase in compute capacity is people are now   simulating much broader aspects of a wind farmed  offshore and using what what we call physics and   four neural networks we can actually take true  physics create a simulated model what we do is   we we take data points that that they are able to  collect and we can recreate the the physics of the   simulation using what's called pins or physics  and form neural networks it really allows people   to to see and visualize and simulate what's going  to happen in the real world before they actually   start according to an article by the American  Society of mechanical engineers written by   Michael Abrams while horizontal wind turbines  can be 50 efficient turbines downwind can see   their outputs decreased by 40 percent to avoid the  turbulence of a 10 megawatt upwind turbine with a   rotor diameter of 150 meters a downstream turbine  would need to be installed three kilometers away   and these large distances means production density  is lowered maintenance times would be higher not   to mention all the cabling and connections between  them so massive conventional turbines operate best   in a small range of wind speeds are costly to  install and require more space But as they get   bigger and bigger the cost per megawatt produced  continues to drop making them cost competitive   in more and more regions throughout the world but  what about those vertical axis turbines or vawts   I mentioned earlier well Hydro wind energy  has created this the ocean Hydro Omni and it   functions in a completely different way than other  horizontal or vertical axis wind turbines you know   they've existed but one of the big questions  is why haven't they been commercialized and   the reason is ultimately because if we were  converting it directly to electrical energy   conventional wind turbines would actually be much  better to do that but if you're doing it the way   we're doing it we're harnessing more of the wind  resource right up to 40 meters per second which is   you know very close I mean it is almost hurricanes  hurricane wind while hawts have efficiencies of 50   vawts are only around 35 to 40 percent efficient  this is largely due to the fact that the wind hits   both the collection side and the side coming  back into the wind slowing its spin but unlike   hawt's vawts generate a funnel-like wake which  stretches like a contrail and the wind is less   turbulent after it passes through meaning they  can be installed much closer together but that's   not what makes Hydro wind energies Omni turbine  special unlike all other wind turbines the ocean   Hydro Omni doesn't produce electricity directly  from the wind now instead it uses the wind to   lift a heavy mass then when energy is needed the  weight can be dropped powering a generator this   has some really interesting benefits for one the  Omni can operate in a much wider range of wind   speeds because they don't have Delica electronics  and generators attached to the turbines they can   lift the weight faster or slower through a much  wider range of wind speeds also unlike traditional   wind turbines the ocean Hydro Omni can respond  to grid need either storing or releasing energy   on demand if the winds are high and demand is  low they can lift the weights and stand by when   demand Rises they can release the weights at a set  speed and create uniform power output when we're   lifting it we're absorbing the variability of wind  power if it's connected directly to a generator   that means you have fluctuating power and our  approach is that during the lifting process of   lifting that mass by the submerged height you're  absorbing that variability of wind whether it's   three meters per second 5 meters per second or six  meters per second if you ask the grid they don't   really like Renewables because it's it's just  fluctuating power coming into the grid that's   very difficult to manage imagine also that if you  have two masses so as one is being dropped one   is being lifted and then if you think of an array  that's when it becomes more significant one would   be intermittent but if you have it you know four  or five these then you can actually get constant   power output to the Grid it's on demand power  wind and solar cannot provide on-demand power   because one of the things that's missing to a  future powered by Renewables is energy storage   the energy of storage potential of the ocean Hydro  Omni is a function then of the seed depth and the   weight of the mass the mass of the weight you know  what I mean for this reason the first pilot plant   scheduled for the second half of 2022 will be  installed at a depth of 300 meters far deeper   than most traditional wind turbines the Omni then  isn't just an offshore wind energy generator it's   also a battery and a smart grid enabled device to  see just how valuable this could be let's compare   the Omni to a traditional 10 megawatt wind turbine  over the course of a day using our data for RONA   from earlier and factoring average and maximum  wind speeds we can approximate true wind speeds   for a day for the traditional wind turbine power  output will increase with wind speeds until about   15 meters per second then from 15 to 25 meters  per second the traditional turbines will change   its rotor pitch angle to slow down and maintain  a constant output when wind speeds rise above   25 meters per second the turbine has to do  a safety shutdown to prevent over speeding   and damage to itself this is what I mean by not  harnessing the entirety of the wind potential plus   the traditional turbines can't do anything about  matching demand it just produces energy whenever   it can based on wind in comparison the ocean Hydro  Omni can safely operate in wind speeds between 4   and 40 meters per second which means the entire  day it's able to harness the wind speed to lift   the weights but it can lower them back down in  a controlled way throughout the day in Cycles   now a single Omni probably won't be able to  produce as much power as a traditional wind   turbine but because they can be grouped closer  together cost less per turbine they can still   provide similar power output over an entire  wind farm and interestingly if it was built   with the same surface area they'd actually  generate at least four times as much energy   because of the faster wind speed but where things  really get interesting is when we look at Power   output as a function of grid demand again the  traditional turbine can't do much to vary its   output it's just a function of one speed the  hydro when energies turbines can act as an   on-demand device build enough omnis and it would  be possible to meet an entire Grid's demand no   matter what time of day a lot of the ideas they've  employed aren't New Vertical access wind turbines   gravity batteries but their unique packaging  definitely has me excited but Hydro wind energy   isn't in the clear just yet where are you guys in  the development process do you have these systems   out in the wild or are they coming online soon  well accordingly where technology Readiness level   six which means we've actually built um you know  prototype tested components and sub-components   integrated the system as well but onshore the next  step for us is to actually finalize a sub-scale   system and test it in a real offshore environment  to move this to technology Readiness level seven   uh and we're going to be deploying that in 750  meter sea depth so we'll it's not a big rotor   that we're going to be using but it's it's a  system that will kind of validate you know in   terms of the almost a proof of concept uh of what  we're working on the data gathered there will feed   back into their engineering design and eventual  final production model they'll need to prove their   concept can withstand gale force winds out in the  deep ocean show that their systems can last 20 to   30 years like a conventional wind turbine  and come up with maintenance procedures and   intervals to ensure their turbines reach full  life this data will be critical to determine   the true levelized cost of electricity if they  can win on their strategy of smaller vertical   turbines that can be built closer together  in deeper waters with energy storage built in   think they have a winner on their hands  so are we going to stop seeing bigger and   bigger conventional offshore wind turbines not  at all in fact there's more interest in larger   conventional wind turbines than ever but the  benefits of the ocean Hydro Omni will be a new   tool in our toolkit allowing greater renewable  energy generation and greater flexibility their   design will be a grid operator's best friend  able to produce electricity when they need   it regardless of wind speeds if we're going to  move away from stable but dirty forms of energy   production like coal and natural gas we'll need  every tool we can get and if renewable energy   the Achilles heel is predictability on demand  generation like the Omni can provide will be   huge not only to produce energy but lower the  need for grid storage but what do you think are   you excited for vertical access wind turbines with  gravity battery storage as I am what percentage   of future offshore wind projects will use this  approach sound off in the comments below alright   so that is a look at offshore wind turbines with  battery storage built in not to be confused with   title generators which are underwater and we have  video to that which we think you'll like here as   well all right I'm Ricky DaVinci thank you so  much for watching we'll catch you next week

Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 1,464,763

Keywords: two bit da vinci, wind power, tidal power plant, wind turbines, offshore wind, siemens gamesa, wind turbine project, why are wind turbines not spinning, why are wind turbines so noisy, why are wind turbines so big, why are wind turbines so expensive, the future of wind turbines, the truth about wind turbines, wind turbine, offshore wind turbine, offshore wind turbines, offshore wind farm construction, This Breakthrough Wind Turbine Has a Secret

Id: Qc0rF58pP3c

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 14 2022