The Winga E-Generator - Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is this a radically new design?

Yes and no. The Winga E-Generator is a venturi-assisted wind turbine. The performance of the venturi is well known and the basic principles were established by the Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli around 1850. Its performance using water is very largely documented as its main application has been liquid flow measurement. Generating electrical power through wind energy is a recent development. OrganoWorld is the first company to use the venturi principle to generate electricity from lower wind speeds.

2. There are 40 major wind turbine suppliers, why encourage the Winga E-Generator?

The Winga E-Generator has huge advantages over the existing 3-bladed turbines in that it can operate competitively at low wind speeds and is much less site dependant. For example, the Winga E-Generator could be installed within the city limits of San Francisco and supply power to the city. Located closer to the power consumer, there is less electric power transmission loss and the Winga E-Generator can be installed by itself in the place of a wind farm.

3. Is the Winga E-Generator cheaper than the existing 3-bladed turbine?

The Winga E-Generator is not cheaper based on the number of MW installed, however the energy produced per MWh is much cheaper. This contradiction comes from the fact that at low wind speeds when the 3-bladed turbine is not yet turning a Winga E-Generator is at full power. A 2.0 MW 3-bladed turbine may produce its rated energy at high wind speeds but at low wind speeds it produces no energy at all. As a result its utilisation factor is in the 35-38% range. A Silver Eagle operates with a utilisation factor of over 80%.

4. Is there an advantage to the Winga E-Generator in the context of the Smart Grid?

Most definitely as the Winga E-Generator can supply distributed power to the Smart Grid 80% of the time and this will substantially reduce the supply side cost of the Smart Grid. Much of the North American electrical network has aged to the point that it requires replacement. At the same time new sources of zero emission energy are desperately required. The fact that power is available 80% of the time opens the door to using low technology battery storage to decrease the peak load on the network. As such the size and cost of replacing the entire existing infrastructure will decrease substantially and most particularly on the transmission and supply side which are huge and expensive problems.

5. Is this a Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine (DAWT)?

No, this is a venturi assisted wind turbine. A venturi uses a convergent to build up air velocity followed by a ducted tunnel or throat followed by a divergent that pulls the air through the throat. The air pressure built up cannot escape around the edge of the turbine blades located in the throat as is the case with a DAWT. The increase in the wind velocity or the pressure differential that can be built up with a venturi is many times that of a DAWT. Any DAWT will outperform a 3 bladed wind turbine, and a venturi design will outperform the DAWT.

6. Are you using the same rotor as a DAWT?

No, a DAWT invariably uses a three bladed turbine rotor where much of the wind passes through the area closest to the shaft and this generates little torque. We use an annular rotor that directs the air flow to the outer most circumferences of the rotor blades and this increases the torque produced.

7. Why are the convergent and divergent so large, can they be made smaller?

The convergent and divergent can be any size, however the smaller their size the smaller the amount of energy produced and the higher the cost of the energy produced. The units are sized to be cheaper than wind energy from a three bladed turbine and to be competitive with electricity from coal. We are targeting the utility-scale market and for all wind turbines this involves converting the wind energy contained in the swept area. For the 3 bladed turbines this is the swept area of the rotor, for the Winga E-Generator it is the surface area of discharge of the divergent.

8. Can the Winga E-Generator turbine survive extreme weather conditions?

Yes, as the wind speeds increase the walls of the convergent and divergent progressively retract. The wind turbine itself can withstand hurricane force winds but because of flying debris it will be shut down and the brake applied.

9. How much confidence do we have in the results obtained to date?

We have a very high level of confidence in the applied technology we use. Engineers fully understand how a venturi works and its effect on the velocity of the fluid flowing through it. Our work is simply to understand the parameters that influence its performance to obtain the best performance possible using wind as the fluid.

The performance of the rotor is simulated using the same technologies or software that would be used to design the wings of a new airplane. The basic principal is that of lift resulting from the flow of air around an airfoil. This aeronautical technology is very well documented and the degree of confidence in the result is very high. In fact, the confidence is as high as for any manufacturer designing an aircraft.

10. Your rotor turns at much higher speed won't this make for a noisier turbine than a three blade turbine.

No, the Winga E-Generator makes very little noise. The whoof of the three bladed turbines are generated when the blades pass in front of the mast. In the Winga E-Generator the turbine blades are enclosed in a housing and rotate noiselessly.

11. If the Winga E-Generator generates more energy why can we not simply install more or bigger three bladed turbines to get the same result?

The Winga E-Generator was designed to operate in areas where the wind speed is too low to operate a three bladed turbine. At 4 meters/second, a wind speed available around many densely populated areas of North America it would take 75 to 100 three blade turbines to produce the equivalent energy of 1 Winga E-Generator.

12. Where in the urban environment would you envisage installing these turbines if 1000 MW of energy were required?

Our preferred location is on the right of way of existing divided roadways that already connect urban areas. Essentially the turbine could be installed on a light structural roof over the roadway. As an alternative the Winga E-Generator can be installed in a parking lot, a vacant lot or on the roofs of office buildings or factories.

13. What is the status of the Winga E-Generator?

We are approaching industrial partners, Venture Capitalists and several levels of government for funding to build a small, working prototype for wind tunnel testing. An aluminum smelter has signed a letter of interest to buy a full-size prototype that would follow. We are now looking for strategic industrial or institutional investors who want to develop the future Smart grid using distributed zero emission wind energy as the supply source.