Wind power is one of the technologies the world is counting on to provide a source of sustainable, non-polluting energy. Wind is abundant, totally clean, and perpetually renewable and unlike fossil reserves, it is widely distributed across the five continents. Shifting to renewable energy (including wind energy) is becoming a must to address the climate change challenge.
A Tunisian start-up company named Saphon Energy has brought a new concept to the market. The key idea here is to create a turbine, windless, for generating electricity from the wind. Uh, wait, a windless turbine to create energy from the wind? Yeah, a bit confusing, but stay with us
and see the marvelous idea that the company has to offer. The particular turbine’s design is inspired from the sails of ship by the way.What is wrong with the conventional wind turbines??First of all, they look creepy. Secondly, they occupy much more space, are a contributor to noise pollution and they are murderers of birds. That coupled with the search of alternative methods for creating electricity has brought to us this new invention by the Saphon Energy. Their wind turbine has been patented and is known as ‘Zero Blade Technology’.Saphon’s aim wasn’t to improve the current wind turbines technology but rather to challenge the “box” and develop a radical new way of harnessing the wind. Anis' basic idea was to remove the whole rotating system (blades and hub) and to replace it by a non-rotational sail-shaped body. The idea has evolved over time and emerged as a promising technology named the Zero-Blade Technology. The related wind converter, baptized "The Saphonian", is bladeless, rotationless, and follows, instead, a back and forth 3D knot motion, largely inspired from sailboats.
The system is designed so
that it traps wind in a to and fro motion which via moving pistons is
transformed into mechanical energy. The result is hydraulic pressure
which is the juice for hydraulic motor and a generator which converts it
into electricity. The excess electricity being produced is stored into a
hydraulic device that can accumulate electricity and discharge it
later. The Inventor, Anus Aouini, said; ‘This is not the first bladeless
wind turbine, but we thought outside the box: the initial idea came
from sails — the only human system that can capture and convert the bulk
of the wind’s power into mechanical energy…Our second generation
prototype is 2.3 times more efficient, and costs nearly half the price
of modern wind turbines. It discards the most expensive components in a
traditional wind turbine, which are the blades, hub and gearbox.
The company has given quite bold statements about their invention and
claim that it is not only less expensive and safer but is efficient. In
fact, they have gone to the extent claiming that their invention is
efficient enough to exceed the Betz limit of Betz’s law. Betz’s Law states the following; There is no wind
turbine which is capable of harnessing more than 59.3% percent of
wind’s kinetic energy.’ The Zero Blade Technology beats that; welcome to
the future!
