Are Shrouded Rooftop Wind Turbines the Future of Energy?

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As a former high-rise window cleaner, spending a lot of time on the side of a tall buildings. I can confirm the intensity of updrafts are so strong that it can prevent us from working a particular side because the winds are too powerful on that side. Although I may not be an engineer, I am the son, nephew, and grandson of engineers. And I think this is a viable and alternative option for energy gathering. Keep up the great work Matt.

With all these new cool micro turbine ideas there is always the question of "ok can I buy it for my home and when?", but usually that is not the case, sadly...

Erasmus was brilliant, he drew the first diagram of the earth with a molten core, he experimented with carriage design, and he did have ideas about evolution. "The Lunar Men" Jenny Uglow

An axiom that came to mind during goes, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." If the design is good enough and does what you need it to at a practical cost, it's useful and worth investing in.

I used to live in a tall building in Oslo and additionally, the building was at the top of a small valley. It was very fun to watch out the window in the autumn and winter, because the leaves weren't falling, but rising and the same with snow in the winter, it always snowed upwards, even on windless days. But another benefit I see in this is that it will inherently be more safe for birds and that they can be made much less visually intrusive. But I'm left wondering if this type of thinking should influence city design itself, so that buildings are specifically designed to capture and redirect wind and guide it to where you can harness it.

A while back I found an interesting study performed by the University of Florida concerning the efficiency of the HVAC condenser fan. They showed how shrouding it improved the overall COP of the system.

This design have a few major challenges. 1. Still low output after all these complications. 2. High installation and maintenance costs. Everything at the roof costs more everything works faster need more maintenance. More maintenance at the roof costs more. 3. Pressure difference between the sides of the turbine will increase wear and tear. It will cost a lot. Some companies will still put them on top of their buildings just for greenwashing.

My main concern here is that the wind energy that a turbine can extract is proportional to the cube of the air's velocity. That's why conventional turbines are built on tall towers in very windy areas: just a few more m/s gives you huge gains in power. All the turbulence at ground level, which they claim to be taking advantage of, is exactly what makes the wind at ground level so slow, and thus so unsuitable for power generation.

I hope this works out. When it comes to any turbine mounted to a building, it is not just about the dB level of the device itself but the amount of the harmonic vibrations passed onto the frame of the structure it is mounted to, particularly as the turbine ages.

I am following renewable energy developments for over 30 years now. During this time there have been uncountable start-up companies with big claims about rooftop wind turbines. All this companies have disappeared again. And this is for a reason, there are just so many things working against rooftop or building integrated wind turbines: * The average wind speed near the ground is just very low. It is for a reason that modern wind turbines are so tall: the higher up you go, the higher the wind speeds. * The winds speeds in the built environment are much more variable than wind over an open field or higher up, and the wind is also more turbulent. This means high mechanical loads on the turbines and power that is more difficult to integrate in a stand alone system or weak grid * Most buildings are not designed to deal with the mechanical loads exerted by the wind turbines. So maybe there are some niche applications, but color me sceptical about mass-application.

My town just built a new water treatment plant; it's broad, and flat all around; when the wind picks up, I bet the roof gets scary to stand on. Perfect place for these turbines! My question is, how will they handle Canadian winters? Norway having similar winter conditions and the turbines being designed there from what I understand, I'm sure it's taken into account. One could argue we have even higher winds in winter in my specific area, too. I wish I had the money to invest in testing cost vs practicality vs efficiency, because I doubt anyone in the Canadian government federal, provincial or municipal level would be willing to take the chance.

A gent by the name of Robt Murray Smith did a whole YT vid on Darwin turbines and made small one with a 3D printer Vid# 1835. Same concept..

Well done for recognising that it was Erasmus. The clever parts in the design were the flaps....since it could take slowmoving gusts from any direction and harness them.

I live in a suburban high wind area. Between our suburban sprawl and the true urban area is an area that is more rural than urban. One of those rural houses decided to put up a small vertical windmill (approx. 3-4 feet diameter) about 20 feet off the ground as an attempt to lessen their electricity bill along with solar panels. An article about it was in the local newspaper, and other people started talking about how well this windmill was doing and if they should get one. I don't remember what happened, but I'm thinking the power company was involved. The city passed an ordinance so no one could have a windmill--except the original homeowner, who still has theirs up.

I think it was an episode of the program, Grand Designs, the homeowner asked the host what he thought of the his wind turbine. The host looked confused and the camera panned around but no wind turbine could be seen. Then the homeowner pointed out the driveway lighting. Two pole lamps and at the top of the poles were small vertical helical wind turbines. There were batteries inside the poles and the wind turbines produced enough power to keep the batteries charged up. But most of the time the lighting was running off the wind turbine.

Basically it's cost vs output. If I get more watts for what I pay for it then turbines are the thing. But PVs have been dropping in price over decades and are continuing to do so.

We have so miles of highway that could be collecting solar, and wind, too. There is a great deal of air pushed by vehicles on roads in the busiest areas, which could use all the extra power that can be produced. I recall a German company was looking at micro wind turbines, to do exactly that. It was nice to figure out how to use waste heat, too.

Love the presentation of the new technologies. I have powered my home for the past 13 years with a windmill. Its not fancy but it works. Its a windmill from the Bergey Company. There must be about 100 of these in my area(the High Desert of California) on the way to Las Vegas from LA. When you drive up from LA you see dozens of these from the freeway!! It is a reality that I power my home with wind NOW. MY windmill is at 100 feet. What I am looking for is a way to expand my production for the future.

The text capture @12:22 is talking about the economic feasibility of a shroud for reducing a turbine's radar cross section, and goes on to state that it only makes sense if the shroud also improves turbine performance. That's a tangential consideration in the context of that paper's actual subject, and doesn't say that the shroud is not practical at all.