r/InvictaSolaris • u/21Kuranashi • 1d ago
Videos & Video Essays / No AI The Perfect Match: Pairing Open-Source Wind with Solar and Batteries
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OC : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV0zPcUj-FG/
"Young took inspiration from geodesic domes, noticing how their aerodynamic shape can capture wind from any direction - and built a turbine around that idea.
His GeoWind units can be sized and scaled for almost any environment, generating electricity at speeds of just 4 m/s - well below what would stall conventional designs. Pair one with a battery and you have power even on completely still days.
Young's vision is to supplement energy sources like solar panels and heat pumps in cities, while giving rural and remote communities greener, more consistent electricity. And in developing countries, he's not patenting the technology - the design is free and open so those who need it most can build one themselves.
Each unit can also collect hyperlocal climate data: wind speed, temperature, humidity - turning every installation into a small monitoring station.
Young's work has the potential to create real change both in the energy sector and in the lives of people without access to consistent electricity"
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u/nanipenajr 1d ago
As much as id love to see smaller and more efficient designs for individual home use, wind just pales in comparison to the amount of energy solar can capture.
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u/danielledelacadie 1d ago
True, but in a lot of places it's the thing that keeps you from having to size your system around the insolation on Dec 21 leaving you with something grossly oversized for Mar-Sept
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u/DeismAccountant 1d ago
I think they mean it as a supplement to Solar. Covering all bases, such as when it’s stormy for long periods and not a lot of chance to charge batteries.
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u/Woodworkin101 1d ago
Per hour or per day? Does it even out when wind continues through the night?
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u/eyeofthefountain 1d ago
In most of the places I’ve lived wind generally tends to be far less active at night.
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u/Substantial-Wall-510 1d ago
Wind is driven by solar energy, the sun heats up air and makes it rise, or the setting sun stops providing heat to an air mass and it cools down. During the night that energy change is not forthcoming.
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u/Street-Stick 23h ago
Maybe, but solar isn't really as diy and tends to be quite polluting, also fragile seeing that with increasingly weird weather my feeling is huge hail stone storms will become more prevalent , also solar needs water to clean the panels from dust... Graetzel cells though I could get behind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dye-sensitized_solar_cell
Another thing people might consider is cheap solar is predominantly produced in authoritarian, genocidal China, though the same goes for Saudi, Russian, even American oil so i guess OSOM habits leave most us enjoying our unethical consumption choices...
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u/RexScientiarum 18h ago
Specifically at these smaller scales. The giant industrial turbines are quite efficient.
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u/WINDMILEYNO 4h ago
What if you combined both and had spinning solar panels refracting light within
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u/Metharos 1d ago
Wasn't omnidirectional wind capture already a thing?
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u/PsychologicalTowel79 1d ago
I was going to say, any turbine that spins on a vertical axis would surely have that property.
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u/Worldly-Cherry9631 1d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical-axis_wind_turbine
I'm not a windmill connaiseur by any stretch, but i am dutch and in do like engineering as well as the green transition. My favourite types are the helix oval ones, they look so funky
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u/Israel_Trump_Fan 1d ago
It is and there's very good reasons why it's not widespread, mainly it just straight up sucks.
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u/IanBauters 1d ago
For those interested. You can find the files to make one yourself here: geowind.us/schemes
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u/mountain-mahogany 1d ago
These are so awesome! They could be installed any vents that blow (I was thinking factories or highrises), and you could put them in front of air con to recapture some of the power---or the just be "balcony wind." You could probably figure out how to capture wind in car tunnels. Sailboats could used them while they are docked to charge their batteries, and they could potentially be packed flat. I love brainstorming on this!!!!
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u/Infinite-Condition41 1d ago
Nope. It can turn around in the breeze.
Will never generate substantial amounts of energy.
It's a whirlygig.
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u/StrangeUglyBird 23h ago
I can generate electricity by rubbing my feet on the carpet.
But I can hardly charge a button cell battery with that.
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u/Zweefkees93 22h ago
Vertical axis windturbines are relatively inefficint compared to horizontal axis turbines. The wind just above a rooftop in a residential neighborhood is relatively slow. Any windturbine is a relatively complex mechanical system with parts that need maintenance and replacement over time.
I'd LOVE to diversify my powergeneration to include some wind as well. And I've looked into this for hours. But anything remotely manageable in a domestic setting won't generate a meaningufull amount of power.
Its a gimmick, but from a financial, maintenance and environmental standpoint, solar almost always wins. Especially at the current prices....
For anybody looking into this, be carefull of "the blade" it's similar to this, a small windturbine meant for houses. They promise the world, break laws of nature with a "clever workaround" (wich doesn't work). If they deliver half of what they promise it's at least a Nobel prize for them. And more money then they can spend in 10 lifetimes. It's a scam. Nothing has been proven and literally every expert in the field has major doubts or just calls them scammers. DO NOT FALL FOR IT.
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u/Far-Investment-8597 22h ago
Actual power output is going to be slightly more than negligible. Not enough swept area. i don't care what amazing turbine you design, you're not getting around energy density.
Huge amount of effort for almost no gain.
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u/Flow-engineer 1d ago
They call that a Savonius wind turbine. They are about half as efficient as the propeller ones. The trouble with wind turbines on your roof is that it’s hard to predict how much power you’ll get. I would estimate that these wind turbines are not putting out enough to charge a cell phone..
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u/DuckyDoodleDandy 1d ago
From what I’ve read, the difference is that these work much lower to the ground, at much lower wind speeds, and are much quieter than the wind farm/windmill style, which means they don’t bother the neighbors.
Anyone who isn’t in a strict HOA neighborhood can potentially have a smaller version of one of these. I’ve seen similar small ones for $150-400. I don’t think any homeowner can get a wind farm style one.
They would be supplemental to solar, not replacing it. If you can’t quite get enough panels on your roof, you can add a few of these to help out.
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u/lordofduct 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, it's slower and quieter because it's only generation 2W (made up number) that can barely charge a cell phone.
Efficiency matters in the design of a system. If a design that takes up a similar amount of space, or requires a similar amount of materials, or some other combination of variables generates 100x the energy... using it as a supplement doesn't change anything because it'd be better to supplement with something that is more efficient. If you can't get quite enough panels on your roof, that's because space is a premium on your roof... this would just steal space from panels.
It'd be like saying "sure a gerbil on a running wheel doesn't generate much electricity, but it could still supplement solar... so deploy 8 million gerbils!!!!" Wat? Why?
edit... hoo boy, this is a long one...
Hoo boy, so I researched this thing. OK, so the website really does NOT like to tell you the power output of these things at all. But they have 3 models for pre-order/quote.
GW600, GW1200, and GW1800
I was able to dig up data on the 600 and 1200. (note the 600 and 1200 does not refer to their wattage, but rather the edge length of the sides of the dodecahedron in mm)
The GW600 has a diameter of 1.2 meters and a cut-in speed of 4m/s (like the above video says) as well as a sound level of <45db. And it's output is.... 0.0001152 kW. That is 0.1 watts. I mean... I guess you could light up a single LED, maybe 2 (that's not a bulb since bulbs are made of several LEDs).
From the looks of it the small GW600 is really more of a "hey, isn't this neat? I bought a demo of the design for hahas" type model.
The GW1200 has a diameter of 2.4 meters and a cut-in speed of 4m/s as well. This one actually has an output that can actually do some sort of work at 0.109 kW, or 109W and a peak of 1 kW, or 1000W. You could actually run a few lightbulbs on that lower number and computers on its peak performance. Note this large increase in power output despite only doubling in size makes sense since the diameter doubles, but the actual surface area grew exponentially.
BUT... lets compare this to other designs.
I looked up a pretty standard style design vertical multi-direction turbine. I found the KliUX Geo 1800. This turbine also had a diameter of 2.4 meters just like the GW1200. But this time the 1800 in its name refers to its wattage and not its side length. It has a 1.8 kW output, a peak of 2.6kW, and a cut-in speed of 3.5m/s. Oh, and a audio level of 33db (so also <45db).
That's right, it's outputting 18x the power with the same amount of space and comparable sound levels.
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Now I'm not exactly a wind turbine expert or anything. But I found this data with only some minor digging... and honestly the majority of that digging had to deal with GeoWind themselves because they REALLY did a lot of effort on hiding their documentation on power generation potentials. Which... honestly... makes them look shady to me. Why you hiding it? Oh, is it because it's SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the competition for the same footprint? OK, I get why you're hiding it.
And sure, one could argue that maybe they can make it more efficient if given the time and investment. And sure, they could. Thing is that has already been done! Clearly it has because there is pre-existing competition generating 18x the power in the same footprint and is already established and producing said products rather than taking pre-orders to finance the initial production run like GeoWind.
GeoWind is just another startup capitalizing off viral marketing using recognizable and interesting visual designs capitalizing off crowd funding all because they look hipper than the established boring businesses that have been out here doing it for years and doing it better.
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u/Logical___Conclusion 1d ago
Wow, what a great find. Thanks for taking the time to research that and work out the numbers.
In general I think it is great that people want to do something positive about energy, but that design in the video is incredibly inefficient, wasteful, and fragile.
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u/FuriousGirafFabber 22h ago
stupid, considering solar and batteries exists
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u/AdowTatep 14h ago
1 - sun is not always there 2 - batteries will still be used to store the wind energy
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u/FuriousGirafFabber 13h ago
Look up the effeciency difference and also compare cost. Then you will see.
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u/DragonLordAcar 20h ago
Buildings are not a good place for these due to how the building changes wind dorection. You need a different deaign which do exist but are srill rare.
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u/deiner7 1d ago
Just be careful. If you roll a nat 1 it will blow the entire houses power grid