Join us for Wind Energy: A New Approach for Capturing an Untapped Energy Source, an event on Tue, July 9, 2024 at 7pm at SEMI, 567 Yosemite Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035. (Also available via Zoom – see https://CaliforniaConsultants.org/event/wind-energy-a-new-approach-for-capturing-an-untapped-energy-source/)
We’ll have free quality pizza and drinks starting at 6:30pm. Come early and network with our members, other engineers, interested parties, and possible consulting clients. A Zoom option for this hybrid event is at www.CaliforniaConsultants.org
Although it is very eco-friendly, growth in the wind turbine industry is slowing down. Today’s wind farms generally employ Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), but their construction involves the major logistical feat of transporting huge blades (as long as 118 meters) to locations that are often remote. However, as HAWTs cannot handle the most turbulent air, they must be placed high above the ground and far apart from one another.
Promising research out of CalTech, Stanford, and other universities predicts that Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), which are placed less than 100 feet above the ground in wind farms under existing HAWTs, will create synergies such that the overall energy output from their simultaneous operation is greater than what each would produce on its own.
Our speaker Kevin Wolf co-founded Wind Harvest, a new company intending to introduce VAWTs. Their latest prototype has been able to operate in turbulent conditions at the UL test facility in Texas and achieve Technology Readiness Level 7. Core to this turbine’s success is its use of a VAWT aeroelastic engineering model validated using an earlier prototype’s field data. Out of this earlier experience, the engineering team came up with nine new inventions, including an innovative hinge design that is critical for the 70-year predicted fatigue life life based on a typical 15 million rotations per year.
Come to this event and learn about this innovative technology that could revive the wind turbine industry.
Kevin Wolf is the CEO and co-founder of Wind Harvest. He has been an officer with the Company since 2006, and is an expert on vertical axis wind turbine technology and mid-level wind markets. Kevin is the author of papers published in industry magazines, and with California Energy Commission grants. His degree in Evolution and Ecology from UC Davis gives him a solid science background that is widely useful to the Wind Harvest. Kevin is the company’s expert on the synergy of VAWTs used in wind farms, their impact on birds and bats, and the Technology Readiness Level process, and one of the inventors of company patents.
