(USA)
Researchers in America have discovered that vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) could provide clean and cheap electricity in urban environments.
The team from the University of Utah’s Department of Mechanical Engineering simulated different permutations for the VAWTs, which have the generator ‘vertically oriented in the tower’, and found the optimal design produced electricity that would cost 10% lower than US average.
“This is not the end of our research, and I think that we have more to study on the turbine design configuration and its operating conditions that would allow for enhancing the amount of energy captured by the turbine. It’s exciting,” said Lam Nguyen, one of the lead researchers on the project.
Figure 3 illustrates the computer-aided design model for design configuration #13. The turbine blades are assumed to be made of carbon fiber and the turbine shaft and blade supports are made of Aluminum 2024. Credit: Lam Nguyen and Meredith Metzger, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah
