Can This Genius Wind Turbine Outperform Rooftop Solar?

this video is sponsored by ZipRecruiter harnessing  the power of the wind is no longer reserved for   large-scale wind farms homeowners and businesses  can now turn to a new rooftop wind turbine design   from a company called aeromine to complement  solar power when it's cloudy or dark but are   these turbines really what they're cut out  to be how do they work and what makes them   different from all the rest and what does it mean  for you and me I'm Ricky and this is Two Bit da Vinci on paper when does the perfect complement  to solar for distributed renewable energy   production since unlike solar wind can blow  at night or when it's clouded or cold out   but while residential solar has made its way  to millions of homes and businesses the same   just hasn't happened for wind even though wind  power is among the fastest growing source of   renewable energy around the world I mean in the  us alone the total installed capacity of wind   energy grew by 13 gigawatts roughly 10 percent  to reach 136 gigawatts in 2021 globally wind   power capacity grew by 93.6 gigawatts is now  837 gigawatts up almost 13 from the previous   year for contacts the electricity consumption  of the average American household is around 1.2   kilowatt which means that the new Global install  capacity could power almost 80 million American   Homes yet we don't see wind turbines on every  rooftop why is that the reason is that most   of the newly installed capacity comes from huge  wind turbines with an average nameplate capacity   of 3 megawatts grouped in centralized wind farms  most of them offshore the reason behind this is   that the wind turbines get more efficient and can  capture more high-speed wind the taller and bigger   they become making them more cost effective but  it also makes them wildly expensive to build and   useless for low speed wind what this means for you  and me is that installing these types of massive   turbines at home or on buildings isn't an option  they're just two massive and large scale for our   needs and most of us couldn't afford them and  the smaller versions are too inefficient to be   practical and still require high-speed wind but  thankfully there are other options for small scale   distributed wind power we made a video on this  topic about a year ago where we covered bladeless   wind turbines in that video we talked about some  of the more exotic designs like the Spanish Vortex   bladeless that a lot of you dubbed the sky braider  watch that video you'll understand that reference   or the electrostatic wind energy converter  those Technologies were pretty cool but we're   mostly experimental and still in the developmental  stage but a startup called aeromine is changing   the game for distributed wind power the design  inspired by Formula One race cars arrowman is a   wind turbine company based in Houston Texas it was  founded in 2020 by Professor Carson winterguard   from Texas Tech University CEO David astronaut  and Martin maneke an experienced Tech developer   the company patented a unique way to generate  renewable energy efficiently from low-speed wind   using an airfoil like the once found on race cars  the technology helps solve most of the problems   with conventional wind turbines the company also  claims that its turbines are more efficient than   other wind turbines of similar size and they can  produce 50 percent more power than a solar array   of similar costs furthermore they're mounted on  the edge of rooftop so they leave almost all the   roof surface available for solar panels so it's  not like one or the other but both but how is this   possible okay so engineering hats on for just a  moment I promise we'll keep this fun but before   I get back to that let me tell you about our  sponsor this week ZipRecruiter is playing a big   role in my life right now as I've recently made a  new posting to hire a new researcher we devote a   huge amount of time to research and writing so we  need help and after being frustrated with mediocre   candidates on competing sites I decided to give  a zip recruiter a try and I'm so impressed they   make it easy to define a role specify if it's in  person or remote full-time or part-time and come   up with an awesome template to start your post  their algorithms help match you with the perfect   candidates and their clean dashboard makes it a  breeze to review applicants and leave feedback   in fact 4 out of five employers who post a job  on ZipRecruiter find a quality candidate within   the first day and I'm so happy to report that  after reviewing some sample scripts I think I   may have found our next researcher with the job  market being as uncertain as it is you really   need to check out zip recruiter whether you're  hiring or looking for your next job use my link   ziprecruiter.com two-bit that's ziprecruiter.com  t-w-o-b-i-t to get started for free today huge   thanks to ZipRecruiter and you for support in the  show aeromones are made of two main components a   pair of mirroring aerofoils the wing structures  at the top and a generator enclosed at the bottom   the aerofoils are designed to take advantage  of something called the Venturi effect which   is a drop in pressure caused by an increase in  speed when a fluid passes through a constricted   area like the ones between two aerofoils this is  the same thing that produces uplift on wings on   an airplane and also down force on an F1 car  keeping it planted down at really high speeds   and during cornering without skidding in the case  of the aeromine two airflows are placed sideways   one in front of the other forcing air to speed up  as it goes through the middle the kicker is that   these aerofoils are Hollow Chambers connected to  a manifold with a turbine generator at the center   the wings let's call them are also lined with  little outlets on the internal surface so when   wind pushes through the aeromine and accelerates  its pressure drops because of the Venturi effect   this sucks air through the manifold old and  through the turbine making it spin and generate   electricity this is super counterintuitive at  first because you would think that it was the air   going through the aeromine that moves the turbine  but it's not it's actually the air coming in from   the manifold intake that drives the turbine and  this is awesome if you stop and think about it I   mean we're talking about a system that literally  extracts air from one place which could be pretty   much anywhere and pushes it through a wind turbine  to generate electricity so you can install these   things for example on a huge Warehouse in the  desert and use it as a multi-purpose generator   air extractor to remove hot air that builds up  near the ceilings and that is pretty impressive if   you ask me some of the most important benefits of  this design though are the fact that it is a small   turbine but the system has a large sweep area so  you can harness a lot of wind power without using   huge turbine blades this has several advantages  like reducing the cost of installation maintenance   is also reduced since the turbine is small and  enclosed in a manifold protecting it from the   environment and also dramatically reduces the  amount of noise how about damage to birds one of   the first comments I always get when I talk about  wind turbines all in all our mind is a really cool   technology that could revolutionize the way we  generate distributed renewable electricity from   the wind it's an interesting concept that could  potentially have a huge impact on our Energy   Future but I bet you're wondering two things can  I buy it today and how much do these things cost   unfortunately the answer to the first question is  still no you can't go out and buy an aeromine yet   because a company hasn't reached commercial  scale yet but don't get discouraged just yet   because aramine already struck a major deal  with the German chemical Powerhouse BASF and   installed its first major commercial pilot system  in basf's Factory in windot Michigan last summer   in 2022. this is pretty impressive considering  the company only launched two years prior if   all goes well it'll be a matter of months before  they open sales to the public so I'll be keeping   an eye out in the the near future regarding the  second question I don't have a definitive answer   just yet but we can't estimate the cost from the  company's statement that a 5 kilowatt unit can   produce 50 percent more power than a solar array  of equivalent cost so the cost of a five kilowatt   unit should be equivalent to the price of a 3.3  kilowatt hour solar array at an average cost of   2.86 per watt for solar in 2023 that works  out to 9533 Dollars and a cost per watt of   a dollar ninety one this is higher than the 130  to 150 per watt for utility scale wind project   but the savings and maintenance costs transmission  lines and other benefits like being decentralized   could give these turbines a pretty competitive  levelized cost compared to other utility wind   farms furthermore as the company improves its  design and Manufacturing processes based on   the results of the pilot test its cost could  potentially go down more significantly even   from where it is today because you gotta remember  there's no real exotic materials it really comes   down to manufacturing foils and the packaging of  it all another topic that always comes up when   talking about Renewables like wind is efficiency  how good are aeromones that converting wind   energy into electricity according to a research  paper from a team in Sandy labs in collaboration   with westergard one of the company's co-founders  their mark one turbine design can reach a stable   efficiency of 18 percent at wind speeds as low as  22 miles an hour and an unstable Peak efficiency   of 28 percent under certain conditions this is  about a third to a half of the bets limit which   is the maximum theoretical efficiency of a wind  turbine regardless of design considering that most   horizontal axis wind turbines the ones we think  of have a efficiency of between 20 and 40 percent   aeromones aren't too bad but definitely not quite  as high of course as always the technology isn't   perfect and it has several drawbacks the most  important issue is that to reach the promised   potential performance aeromones have to be  installed on the edge of large buildings with   flat roofs like warehouses big box stores and the  like this is to take advantage of the building's   flat facade which creates an upward current of  air that amplifies wind speed so unless you live   in a container home or other modern style house  with sharp edges flat vertical walls and roofs   with no Eaves you won't benefit all that much  from installing an aramine on your roof so that   was a bit of a setback for me because I really do  want to add a wind array to my house but I don't   know maybe there is a part of my house somewhere  where this could make sense however for those of   you that live in multi-family homes aeromon's  Mark II design with a collector scoop and the   turbine in the center pointing down is optimized  to harness this effect turning a 10 mile an hour   wind into 20 miles an hour in the intake and  50 mile an hour in between the airfoils that's   a 5x increase in wind speed and could make them  useful in many more places that conventional wind   turbines wouldn't even be able to spin the second  issue is that for the same reason I just mentioned   the building needs to have one of its walls facing  the wind which isn't always the case additionally   aeromones are fixed in place and can't pivot to  catch the wind for a better angle this means that   they only work efficiently year round if the  location has predominant winds always blowing   roughly in the same direction there are also some  concerns about aeromones under extreme weather   they probably won't be impacted by storms or  extreme heat but snow could be a bit of an issue   if it builds up between the airfoils as it hardens  it'll stop working until cleared excessive snow   could also clog the jet Outlet of the aerofoils  reducing their ability to suck in air through   the manifold and power the turbine though maybe  most of these issues could be prevented if we   warm air through the manifold and melt the snow  to prevent clogs it's just something to think   about and it would require some additional excess  heating maybe through a resistive element to keep   this from freezing over so as usual this is not  a one size fits all solution for distributed wind   but it's an amazing option for those lucky enough  to live in the right place many coastal cities   get a nice constant Ocean Breeze and buildings  are usually purposely built looking toward the   ocean so it could be a great use case for way more  things than you think but there's an even better   use case on the horizon we made a recent video  about the Saudi Arabia Mega project to build the   linear city called Neo I strongly suggest you  check that out after watching this one the line   is a crazy linear skyscraper Mega City 106 miles  long and 1640 feet high can you imagine how many   aeromones we could fit on the top of that kind  of a roof system and how much air would just be   funneling right through aeromones are roughly  seven feet wide and judging by the pictures   they're spaced about twice their width apart  so that's one air of mine every 21 feet give or   take so you could fit almost 27 000 aeromones on  the line generating 133 gigawatts of electricity   maybe even more and at an average consumption  of roughly one kilowatt per person that would   be enough to cover the electricity demand of  a hundred and thirty three thousand people not   huge compared to the 9 million projected residents  but still a really good start looking at aramind   and seeing how they came up with a very clever  practical scalable solution for distributed wind   and that they got from startup to launch to a  commercial pilot plant in just under two years   I feel very confident that we'll see these types  of solutions deployed all over the place pretty   soon massive adoption is also likely to bring down  prices making these and other similar Technologies   the perfect complement for residential solar  panels taking us one step closer to a future of   a decentralized electricity grid with competitive  prices we'll still need batteries of course but   with wind blowing 24 hours a day the need for  Batteries will be reduced compared to solar   alone alright so that is a look at the aeromine I  think this is such a cool concept I think there's   a lot of benefits too if you think about a  traditional vertical axis wind turbine or a   horizontal access wind turbine it really disrupts  the flow in a large pattern that's why offshore   wind turbines are spaced very very far apart so  that way downwind turbines aren't affected by   the Upstream turbines could the aeromine do  a better job of harnessing the wind without   having to be as far apart 21 feet we mentioned  per aramine probably is a tighter density than   other forms plus you could actually potentially  use it at your house and that's what I'm looking   for I would love to complement my solar array  I have a 10 kilowatt solar system going up as   we speak but no wind which means as soon as that  sun goes down I'd have to have all batteries for   backup so I'm looking at more of these type  Solutions and I might even try to reach out   to aramon and see if I can get one to mess around  with all right that's a look at the aeromine don't   forget to sound off in the comments below hit that  subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't   miss our future videos and as always we'll catch  you guys next week I'm Ricky and this is stupid

Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 463,329

Keywords: two bit da vinci, wind power generator for home, wind turbines for home, solar panels, aeromine wind turbine, wind power, wind turbine for home, wind power plant, wind power generator, wind power for home, wind power 101, wind turbine project, motionless wind turbine aeromine, small wind, wind turbine, renewable energy, wind turbine for home electricity, wind energy, wind turbine generator, Can This Genius Wind Turbine Outperform Rooftop Solar?

Id: uyluRXPx-K0

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023