2 Participants At General Electric’s ECOmagination Challenge Propose Solar CPV/Wind Turbine Combo

Together with a team from the Netherlands, a wind turbine that fits on the ridge of gable roofs was developed.The turbine is normally placed over the full width of the roof and -as the diameter is only 22″ (45 cm)- it is aesthetically pleasing and not intrusive, while being very economical. They designed a grid /tied inverter, which additionally accepts solar CPV. Traditional technologies (both vertical and horizontal axis) turbines require at least a 10′ (3m) diameter turbine for the same output, are bulky (and aesthetically unacceptable) and difficult to mount on a residential roof.

The developers believe this is the first real venture to introduce residential wind energy and their team’s strategy is to get exemption for building permits and zoning requirements,considering the small impact on the construction of the building and acceptable aesthetics, which will even please the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) crowd. They recognize the strategic importance having contractors and architects on their side.

Shawn Buckley and his partners designed a solar CPV panel. Using Fresnel mirrors, the sunlight is concentrated on an amount of silicon that is just 5% of the silicon required by a solar PV panel with a similar output. As silicon is expensive and the Fresnel mirrors cheap – in particular in large volume – this is a technology that may well change the solar PV industry.

What makes Shawn’s system different is that in addition to delivering electricity, the module also captures solar heat that can potentially heat tap water. The solar CPV panel therefore doubles as a solar heater, while improving efficiency because of cooling. This clearly improves the savings offered by the solar PV concentrator.

Both designs are breakthrough approaches and during the GE ECOmagination Challenge they recognized each other’s strongholds. After some brainstorming weeks they came with the following concept, marrying their technologies in a very efficient manner: On top of the turbine, a custom solar PV concentrator is mounted replacing the cap that normally covers the turbine. This has a number of benefits:

1. Installation cost ishardly more than that of the wind turbine (or solar PV concentrator) alone.

2. Placing it on top of the roof guarantees unobstructed sunlight exposure to the solar concentrator, independent of the position of the roof.

3. Both systems share the inverter; a significant cost savings.

This is the link to the ECOMagination challenge: http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home/SmartWind-RidgeBlaster-18-kW-wind-turbin In Phase two of this contest, participants from all over the world share their best concepts on improving our energy future. Phase two of the ECOmagination Challenge focuses on “Powering Your Home”: and shows innovative ideas about capturing, managing, and using energy in the home and it is amazing that this generated more than 800 ideas. Although the competition closed 15 March 2011 the website is still active so if you are interested to see some of the innovative ideas you can still do that.

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After 27 years in international marketing, Dutch national James Post moved to Grenada in the Caribbean, doing consultancy, writes articles on environmental, technology, tourism and the outdoors. He started
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This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 5:21 am and is filed under Vintage Electronics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.