| Abstract |
If you look around the towns and cities of Ireland, renewability and climate consciousness don't spring to mind. My project aims to change that by introducing renewable energy capture into urban areas using our most bountiful natural energy source, wind. When you think of wind turbines, you picture huge, incredible machines off the coast or over rolling hills, but they don’t have to be. My design for a wind turbine promotes efficiency at a small scale and in the ever-changing wind environments of urban areas. The shape of my wind turbine is known as a H-Darries vertical axis wind turbine, and while it looks very different to the wind turbines you know, it functions in much the same way by capturing wind power using its blades and transforming it to electrical power. These VAWTs have several benefits over other designs as they are more efficient at lower wind speeds, can take wind from all directions and are both quieter and produce less vibrations. Along with these benefits, they also have two major weaknesses: vulnerability to storm damage, since they can’t turn away from high winds, and poor self-starting ability, which often offsets their efficiency at low wind speeds. To solve these issues, I invented a new type of turbine with self-starting abilities, using a motor at the base and a folding mechanism to protect the turbine during storms. I went on to test these additions and found huge benefits in simulated urban and storm conditions.
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