A portion of today's video is
brought to you by Brilliant. Wind generates enough energy to produce
about 35 times more electricity than the entire planet could even use each
day. It's free, clean, and renewable, so why don't we see more wind turbines
used on rooftops like solar panels? In a nutshell, it’s the blades. More moving parts
means more complexity, and you don’t have to worry about that with solar. But what if we could
contain those moving parts in a way that’s safer and more efficient? Using a similar design
as the “wings” on race cars, Aeromine Technologies has done just that. Its turbine works on rooftops
without exposed blades, all while taking up far less space than solar panels. Can the Aeromine
make generating wind energy on rooftops a breeze? I'm Matt Ferrell ... welcome to Undecided. Along with other renewables, the use of wind
energy is growing. In 2021, turbines contributed about 9% of the utility-scale generation of
electricity in the U.S, which is a big jump from less than 1% in 1990. Wind also produces a
lot more power than solar in general. Last year, wind energy generated more than twice the
electricity of solar in the United States. As effective as wind turbines can be, they still
have their limitations. That’s because the giant propellers that you see dotting landscapes are
imposing in more ways than one. Their high upfront costs, maintenance requirements, and effects
on wildlife all present significant challenges. Small wind turbines, or SWTs, are no different,
with factors like their sound, height, and aesthetics often hindering their practicality.
They can vibrate, which leads to both noise and structural issues. Unstable wind flows can cause
turbulence, stressing the turbine’s components. And nearby buildings can affect the wind path,
significantly reducing their power capacity. Basically, there’s a reason why you probably
associate wind turbines with rolling hills (or grinding wheat), not gables and chimneys.
They’re just not as easy to adapt to rooftops the way solar panels are. We’ve discussed these
difficulties in depth in a previous video. Aeromine aims to solve that problem.
The company claims its “motionless” turbine can generate as much as 50%
more energy than solar panels using 10% of the space. To understand how
the Aeromine can accomplish this, though, we need to take a quick step back and
explain how conventional wind turbines work. It all comes down to airfoils. Anything that you
need to function aerodynamically requires one: airplanes, helicopters, pinwheels, and of course,
wind turbines. In fact, turbines in the U.S. initially used the same airfoil type as airplane
wings before scientists developed blade-specific ones. Without the feather-like shape of airfoils,
we wouldn’t be able to conquer the skies. The purpose of an airfoil is to make physics
work for you. Both turbines and airplanes want more lift than drag, so they use airfoils
to take advantage of the Bernoulli Effect. This refers to how gasses and liquids
flow around an object at different speeds. A slower-moving fluid (like
air) will build up more pressure than a faster-moving fluid, and this forces
objects toward the faster-moving fluid. The layout of an airplane wing causes
air to flow faster over the top side and slower on the bottom side.This results
in the bottom side producing the higher air pressure needed for the lift that gets planes
off the ground – and the blades of turbines moving. And as the rotor of the turbine spins,
it powers a generator, producing electricity. In the case of auto racing, though, you
don’t want your car to go flying. That’s why both the contours of the car’s chassis and the
“wings” that engineers stick on its surface are _upside-down_ airfoils. As the air underneath
the car moves faster than the air above it, negative lift, or downforce, pushes down on it.
This downforce stabilizes vehicles and allows them to maintain speed as they turn corners.
What does this have to do with Aeromine? Well, the airfoils on race cars are
stationary, and so are “Formula 1” style airfoils that power the company’s
turbine. Looking at it from the exterior, there’s no exposed moving parts. Instead,
two vertically mounted, hollow foils stand opposite each other with a space between
them. This creates a low-pressure zone, and as wind flows through the space, it’s
drawn through perforations in the wings. A short pipe then leads the captured wind to a
fully enclosed turbine located at ground level. Several of the weaknesses that hold typical
turbines back are addressed by the structure of an Aeromine. Because the turbine-generator is
housed inside, it’s both protected from extreme weather and inaccessible to people and animals,
eliminating a major safety concern.The company claims that the Aeromine is silent and that
its lack of exposed moving parts means less maintenance.It also can operate with wind
speeds as low as 5 mph (8 kph). In contrast, conventional turbines need wind speeds
of 9 mph (15 kph) or higher to operate. How do Aeromines compare to solar?
Right now, the answer is a little vague, or at least not yet verified. Its
website claims that “a single Aeromine unit provides the same amount of power as
up to 16 solar panels,” but doesn’t offer any specs. We do have a rough idea of what
the Aeromine might be capable of, though, because the company participated in the
2021 AFWERX Reimagining Energy Challenge, a U.S. Department of Defense crowdfunding
program. At its “virtual booth,” Aeromine rates its turbines for 5 kW and estimates
that each one could produce 14.3 MWh annually. To put that into perspective, a 5 kW
rating is comparable to the power of the average 21-panel rooftop home solar system. These types of setups generally produce
about 4.5 MWh of electricity a year. As for costs, a 2019 analysis published
by Aeromine in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and Texas Tech
University estimated that the turbine can be installed at $2,400 per kW.By comparison, the average cost of constructing solar panels
of all types was $1,655 per kW in 2020.However, only time will tell how closely the actual cost
of the Aeromine matches the company’s estimate. Let’s be clear, though: Aeromines are
not the kind of turbine you’ll see on a single-family home. In the company’s
own words, they’re intended for “large, flat rooftop buildings” like warehouses, data
centers, and big-box retail stores. And remember, the airfoils are stationary. Their angle won’t
change even when the wind’s direction does, so they’re best suited for locations where there
isn’t much variation in the wind’s direction. Aeromines aren’t commercially available
yet; the company hopes to have them on the market by 2023. However, one
unit is currently undergoing testing on top of the roof of a BASF Corporation
manufacturing plant in Wyandotte, Michigan. In theory, a fully deployed Aeromine system would
look like 20 to 40 turbines lining the edge of the building in a row, spaced about 4.6 meters apart
and facing the predominant wind direction. The company emphasizes that because the turbines
leave room for panels, they’re “complementary” to solar, allowing for power production to
continue after sunset or on cloudy days. Luckily, we don’t have to wait for the Aeromine
to witness the potential of rooftop wind energy. The Dutch company IBIS Power is already
demonstrating the benefits of combining solar panels with small turbines with a form of
installation called a “PowerNEST.” PowerNESTs are specifically designed to blend
in with the existing architecture of a city. They require a flat roof on a
building with a minimum of five floors. Attempting to harness wind energy
within a metropolitan area usually isn’t logistically possible. But
PowerNESTs integrate small turbines, funnels, and solar panels into what IBIS refers
to as a modular “kinetic sculpture” to maximize the amount of electricity a single roof can
produce. In each “nest,” turbines and funnels lie beneath a raised platform of bifacial
solar panels. The company claims that this arrangement provides as much as six times more
energy than solar panels could generate alone. How is this possible? With more physics
— this time the Venturi effect. Have you ever held your thumb over the end of
a garden hose while the water was on and noticed the flow speed up? That’s the
Venturi effect in action. As a fluid moves through a constricted space, like
a funnel, its velocity increases. IBIS claims that the PowerNEST’s use of the
Venturi effect accelerates the wind’s speed by 140 to 160%. Its turbines can also turn
in wind speeds as low as about 4.5 mph. Meanwhile, the solar panels are optimized
through their placement on a raised platform, which means covering a bit more
than the entire area of the roof, rather than only about 40%.Plus, the wind cools
the solar panels as it travels below them, which can translate into a 10
to 25% boost in efficiency. Europe saw the construction of the
first commercial PowerNEST in 2019, and so far, the results seem promising
in terms of how well it gets along with its neighbors. According to a 12-month
study of a demo version of the PowerNEST, an installation atop a residential complex
in the Dutch city of Utrecht caused no noise or vibration in the apartment below it. The
building’s residents didn’t have any complaints, and the company states that it discovered zero
bird or bat casualties inside or near the system. This past July, IBIS constructed a PowerNEST
atop Haasje Over, a 70-meter residential tower in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. With
296 solar panels and four turbines, the company estimates that the modules will
generate “no less than 140 MWh a year.” IBIS is in the midst of installing more PowerNESTs
in the Netherlands and Belgium, and the company’s CEO, Alexander Suma, has also expressed interest
in major U.S. cities like Boston and New York. Concepts like the Aeromine and the PowerNEST
show us that small wind turbines can not only be effective independently, but
even more impactful in the way that they can diversify our renewable energy
sources — meaning more energy generation, more of the time. It’s like peanut butter and
chocolate: Why have one when you could have both? If you'd like to learn more about some of the
concepts behind these wind turbines the physics invovled, I'd strongly recommend checking out
the “Classical Mechanics” and "Electricity and Magnitism" courses at today's sponsor, Brilliant.
All of their courses are highly interactive and the "Classical Mechanics" course covers things
like the conservation of energy and drag forces, which applies directly to wind turbines. And
the "Electricity and Magnetism" course will walk you through how that kinetic energy
is used to generate electricity to power the things we use everyday. These courses have
helped me refresh my knowledge and to wrap my head around some of the more complex concepts.
There's so many other lessons to chose from. Everything from Logic to Solar Energy. The more
we understand the science behind these problems, the better we can solve them. And you can go at
your own pace, learning a little bit each day. But the best part is how hands-on the interactive
courses are, which is the best way to learn. Join over 11 million people learning on Brilliant
today. Go to https://brilliant.org/Undecided to sign up for free. And also, the first
200 people will get 20% off their annual premium membership. Thanks to Brilliant and
to all of you for supporting the channel. So what do you think? Do you think any of these
wind turbine concepts have a shot? Jump into the comments and let me know and be sure to check
out my follow up podcast Still TBD where we’ll be discussing some of your feedback. If you
liked this video, be sure to check out one of these videos over here. And thanks to all of my
patrons for your continued support, you really make these videos possible. And thanks to all of
you for watching. I’ll see you in the next one.
