Charlottesville firm, U.Va., work on new turbine design
Published: November 12, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A Charlottesville company and researchers at the University of Virginia are developing a new turbine to harness wind power for electricity.
The prototype wind turbine -- dubbed the Blade Runner 5000 -- is designed to be smaller, cheaper and more efficient than traditional wind turbines.
The most noticeable difference is that the turbine's blades rotate on a vertical axis, rather than the typical horizontal axis.
"The idea is that this could power a farm or maybe half a dozen homes," said Paul Allaire, a professor of mechanical engineering at U.Va. and chief of the university's newly formed Jefferson Wind Energy Institute.
The institute is working with Charlottesville-based Central Virginia Wind Energy & Manufacturing to build a 9-foot-tall prototype turbine, which was recently tested in a wind tunnel in U.Va.'s Aerospace Research Laboratory.
The final version is expected to stand 150 feet tall, measure 15 feet in diameter and cost an estimated $150,000.
It will be no more obtrusive than the average cell phone tower, said Jason Ivey of Central Virginia Wind Energy & Manufacturing.
Ivey is seeking venture capital and grants to move the project forward. If all goes as planned, he said, the turbines will be up and running by the first quarter of 2011.
Ivey said he intends to tap Virginia companies as much as possible to handle manufacturing and assembling the turbines.
"We want these turbines to be made by Virginians in the state of Virginia," he said.
Traditional large-scale wind turbines typically generate 3 megawatts of electricity, cost roughly $3 million each and are designed for wind speeds of about 30 mph.
The Blade Runner, however, is designed to generate 50 kilowatts of power and is meant to harness the more moderate winds of places such as Virginia.
Brian McNeill is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.
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You have to look at the cost on a $ per kW basis. The large traditional-style turbines generate 3000 kW of power and cost $3 million, or $1000 per kW. The smaller vertical axis turbines generate 50 kW of power and cost $150,000, or $3000 per kW.
And that probably does not include installation cost, which is usually at least equal to the cost of the equipment.
But the vertical axis turbine technology looks promising, and I am hopeful that these turbines will be more versatile in their applications than the horizontal axis turbines.
The original market for this is the “cabin” on the lake, miles from any electical service. Jet-setters would love to have a half-size version of this charging their batteries. When they come for a long weekend, they will have plenty of “juice”.
Wow mikeyt, a few hundred years is your best optimism? Right in this article it says traditional turbines cost 3 million dollars and this new one costs $150,000. That’s a huge decrease in cost. So, the cost will continue to come down in the near future. But, not if everyone was negative about it and didn’t try to do this. Good thing we have people who will try.
I did plug in the extra $85,000 into a 30 year loan calculator and it raised the payment by about $500. If we figure about $200 for standard cost of electricity, that makes it about $300 per month higher. So, yes it would be higher even with this lower cost turbine. But, I’m confident in the near future it will be figured out how to make this more cost effective.
Another possibility is power companies installing turbines and charging customers for the service. After being installed, the cost should be near zero so it would be profitable for the power companies. Just another thought/possibility.
iBookmaster… you’ve left one key thing out of the equation. The builder would have to buy these things straight out, which means the cost will go into the price of the home. Assuming the cost is $170,000 (it’s a product, the manufacturer has to make a profit), that’s an extra $85,000 per home. Built into a mortgage that’s $85,000 with 30 years of interest added, or about $50,000 more at 5.25% interest. It’s not cost effective for builder building under $1 million homes.
But you kewep developing it and maybe it gets cheaper and cost effective for housing in a few hundred years.
This is great that development is being done right here in Virginia. If they can get this turbine to power 2 houses at once, it would be just as cost effective as the current electricity we pay for. I have a 2000 sq ft home and average $150 per month electric bill. 150 divided by 30 days is $5 a day. Add $2 per day for the cost of a heat pump and that’s $7 a day. $7 a day times 365 days in a year is $2555. $2555 times 30 years (same as a standard mortgage) is $76650. So, the turbine would cost about double. But, if it could run 2 homes, it would cost the about the same as current heat pumps/electricity. I’m sure I’ve left a lot out of this equation and the cost may actually be closer than I’ve showed.
There is a whole lot of competition in this non-Don Quixote type of wind turbine. However, it does have the coolest name.
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