In this study, a new bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind turbine is invented and investigated. The new wind turbine uses the bow-shaped floating foundation to replace the tower structure of the currently used wind turbines. The total vertical load of the wind power generator is carried by the liquid through the bowl-shaped foundation instead of bearing as in the current wind power turbine. It can overcome the limitations of the currently used wind power generation system and produce very large wind turbine.

The breakthroughs of newly invented thin-wall bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind turbine are summarized as the following:

1. It has completely changed the structural form of the traditional wind turbine and eliminated the tower construction. The new wind turbine ma...[ Read more ]

In this study, a new bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind turbine is invented and investigated. The new wind turbine uses the bow-shaped floating foundation to replace the tower structure of the currently used wind turbines. The total vertical load of the wind power generator is carried by the liquid through the bowl-shaped foundation instead of bearing as in the current wind power turbine. It can overcome the limitations of the currently used wind power generation system and produce very large wind turbine.

The breakthroughs of newly invented thin-wall bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind turbine are summarized as the following:

1. It has completely changed the structural form of the traditional wind turbine and eliminated the tower construction. The new wind turbine mainly consists of bowl-shaped shell type floating foundation and upper structure with blade. Such structural form has overcome problem of ‘the heavy head and light foot’ for mass distribution in current wind turbine.

2. The new structural form of the new wind turbine is easy to be constructed and maintained as there is no need for the powerful tall crane to lift the wind blade and power generators to the top of the tall tower as required by the current wind turbine.

3. The new system utilizes the liquid to carry out the weight of the whole system. Theoretically, there is no any limitation on the loading carrying capability and hence there is no any size limitation for new wind generation system. Therefore, this invention provides a feasible technical approach for the manufacture of large size vertical axis wind turbine. The installed capacity of 10 MW or 100 MW can be easily achieved for the thin-wall bowl-shaped shell floating vertical axis wind power generation system;

4. The new system has lower friction during the rotating as compared to the current wind power generation system. Hence, it can increase the power generating efficiency. The experiments has demonstrated that the thin-wall bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind power generation system starts to rotate with wind speed of 3m/s-5m/s (Grade 3 wind), and works with wind speed at 7m/s-9m/s (Grade 5-6 wind). Moreover, the viscous resistance is increasing with the wind speed which can perform as a brake automatically when a strong wind is blowing. Thus, the new system completely eliminates the inefficient mode of traditional system as “does not run when the wind is small, brake when the wind is too strong”;

5. The gravity centroid of new wind turbine is much lower than the current tower-type wind turbine. Hence, the system gets rid of the stability problem of tower structure and makes the whole system much stable under the strong winds;

6. The new system rotates in liquid, which is smooth and quiet. It eliminates the noisy problem of the traditional wind power generation system and hence is environmentally friendly;

7. The new system can be built up with concrete reinforced with fiber reinforced plastic. It can greatly reduce the initial cost of the wind power generator and subsequently it can make the electricity generation price much lower;

8. The concrete structure of thin-wall bowl-shaped shell floating vertical axis wind power generation system has excellent durability which greatly reduces the maintenance cost. It has no complicated mechanical structure either and can achieve long service life.

9. There is a big potential for such new wind turbine system to be applied in:

a.) 1 KW to 5 KW distributed wind turbine for individual family;

b.) 5 KW to 20 KW distributed wind turbine installed on the roof of tall buildings;

c.) 50 KW to 1 MW wind turbine for isolated islands application;

d.) 1 MW to 10 MW ocean-sited wind turbine. Such turbine does not need the deep foundation, but fixed their position by anchorage. Also, its structure is more stable due to its heavy foot and light head structural form;

e.) Mobile wind turbine. The bowl-shaped floating vertical axis wind turbine can be built up on a ferry on the land first, then be towed to the ocean for energy harvesting. After harvesting, the ferry can send the energy storage device back to the island for its utilization.