The Innovative, Economic WindCube + WindMAX by Green Energy Technologies

[Email/RSS Readers - Click for Power Point] I read an article about a new type of urban wind technology being developed for a commercial office building in Ohio and wanted to find out more.  The urban wind turbine, referred to in the article as the WindCube, is manufactured by Green Energy Technologies, Inc. (GET).  I called GET to inquire about the technology, left a message, and within about 10 minutes, I had the CEO, Mark Cironi, on the line.

What is the WindCube or WindMAX? 
It's basically a wind tunnel.  The WindCube is the urban-friendly rooftop application and the WindMAX is the tower application for high power users.  The turbine is designed on Bernoulli's Principle and allows building owners to generate wind power where wind may not be as powerful.  The technology is ideal for urban buildings, big-box retailers, malls, etc., because it powers the building and allows you to net meter.  Which means, regular businesses can use it to generate electricity on site, as opposed to purchasing power from the grid. 

The WindCube is 25x25x15 feet and about 7,200 pounds.  At this size and with 14 mph of wind, it will produce about 160,000 kWh annually.  It costs about $100k, but at 3.0 amplification, you're looking at a payback of 3 years (2.5 amps = 5 yrs; 2.0 amps = 7 yrs).  The box itself will be made with recycled steel and the blades are fiberglass.  Additionally, the turbine can be painted and designed to match the color and style that your business is going for.  GET is working on smaller versions of the WindCube as well. 

Birds? NIMBYs? Noise? Vibration?
I asked about the birds and Cironi said GET has engineered a fine mesh with big openings to cover the shroud so that wind penetrates through the turbine and wildlife is unaffected.  I also asked him about the NIMBYs.  In Cironi's words, "businesses want people to see these blades turning, there's nothing worse than a turbine that doesn't turn. Businesses want customers to know that they are keeping the environment in mind."  Plus, GET is working to ensure that it blends into the surrounding office park area by working with customers.  My last question was on noise and vibration and Cironi said it's not a problem.  The technology was engineered to avoid the typical issues of noise and vibration inherent in other types of wind power devices. Soon, in addition to the WindCube in Kumho Office Park in Akron, Ohio, there will be 2 WindMAX tower installations in Odessa, Texas.

NOTE:  Mark Cironi, CEO + President of Green Energy Technologies, was nice enough to provide his contact information to further discuss the technology.  If you have questions, feel free to contact Mark at mark.cironi [a] getsmartenergy dot com. 

Comments

[Preston]

Justin Thomas of Treehugger blogged on this technology today...welcome all you readers from Treehugger.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/efficient_wind.php

[jsbarrie]

This smells like the Mag-Wind turbine that was in so many blogs recently. From what I read the Mag-Wind was primarily an invention to separate people from their money.

Q:

1. Other than Dr. Spera,who are these "Top aeronautical, mechanical and electrical engineers" who worked on the project? What work did they perform?

2. Is there any side by side comparisons of a windmill with and without this shroud? The energy gains in one direction (assuming that there is a gain) may be more than offset by wind from 45 degrees off of straight on.

3. The amount of available energy in the air is a function of the swept area of the turbine. The claims here, while vague, seem to state that by accelerating the air they can get more energy out than is available which is nonsense. Even if given the swept area + shroud area as the total available, there will be losses due to friction (which goes up with speed!) and turbulence.

TH should demand test data rather than passing on PR platitudes.