Science and technology are busy making progress in more than just one aspect: war equipment, medical sciences and alternate energy sources are just a few highlights among the countless things which are being invented and brought to the market everyday. In light of such research, 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? Well, a number of things. First of all, man 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’. Let’s put our science hats on; 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.
In layman’s terms; 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!
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