Electric Windtower

bbzdieri

Short description

Electrical Towers to Harvest Wind Power

Description

Nicola Delon, Julien Choppin and Raphaël Ménard realized that wind generators could be placed on the existing pylons constructed for power transmission. Many of them can have a double function: first carry high voltage electricity, second provide infrastructure for new wind generators. Pylons are engineered to resist wind. New generators could be placed inside the pylons, not on top, further stabilizing the structures.

Sources

Qualitative Analysis

Description of the Process

The project, aptly called Wind-It, would have wind turbines built on pylons and towers along high voltage lines across the US, sparing the need to build entirely new structures on private or government land--and they'd generate as much as a megawatt of power per tower.

Result of project

Wind-it answers one of the greatest challenges to the development of wind power: where to site wind turbines. Choppin, Delon and Menard's design uses existing infrastructure - the towers and pylons that dot the more than 157,000 miles of high voltage power lines in the U.S. - to locate their turbines, which can be stacked within already sited structures. Moreover, Wind-it solves the problem of linking energy generation and electricity transmission in the same way - by co-locating them. Wind-it XL calls for new and taller pylons. The design is most promising for developing regions and can generate as much as one megawatt of power. Wind-it L loads eggbeater turbines onto the core of existing towersin medium- and high-voltage grids. Wind-it retrofits low- and medium- voltage pylons for a nominal one toten kilowatts of power.