Inhabitat » Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power

September 3, 2008

Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power

by Moe Beitiks

wind power, home energy, Sweden, Wind, wind energy, wind turbines, windmill, alternative energy, energy ball

Swedish company Home Energy recently revealed an innovative wind turbine that spins in a spherical formation. Eschewing traditional rotors for a sleek orb structure, this beautiful rethinking of conventional wind turbine design utilizes the Venturi principle, which funnels wind within the turbine’s blades. The resulting spherical wind turbine features increased efficiency and lower noise levels - making it ideal for small scale energy needs such as personal home use. Best of all it’s called the Energy Ball: the fun name is an added bonus.

wind power, home energy, Sweden, Wind, wind energy, wind turbines, windmill, alternative energy, energy ball

Most modern wind turbines utilize a flat three-blade design, wherein the head of the windmill is directed into drafts by a computer. The tips of these windmills can reach up to six times the speed of the wind. By contrast, the Energy Ball is designed to take advantage of the the Venturi effect, which was originally a measurement of pressure created by channeling an incompressible liquid through a restricted section of pipe. This spherical Energy Ball takes those principles and uses them to channel air through its six blades and around its generator.

This results in highly efficient turbine that can take advantage of very low wind speeds. Home Energy primarily designs small-scale energy solutions for homes, communities, businesses and public facilities. In my opinion they should also be designing for amusement parks: perhaps these fun pinwheels could help offset the carbon impact of all those funnel cakes.

+ Home Energy

Via FooZooDesign

Tip Via Ella

wind power, home energy, Sweden, Wind, wind energy, wind turbines, windmill, alternative energy, energy ball

26 Responses to “Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power”

dubby Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm

Bird blender?

Wormx Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm

Wow, very cool. Nice to see companies trying something different when it comes to wind power.

(Shouldn’t it be Via Below The Clouds: http://www.belowtheclouds.com/2008/08/27/ett-litet-vindkraftverk/ ?)

CTGuy67 Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm

That is great, but until it is available to those of us in North America…what good is it?

thejimgaudet Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Great post. This is very interesting. I will be checking into the specs on this machine. How much energy is produced and all that.

Thanks,

Natovr Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Excellent, very innovative. I will definitely try and get one when I see it :D

Stumbled!

Natovr Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm

@dubby
Birds have eyes, you know.

DFH Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm

Problems: 1. The specs say the inverter produces 50 Hz AC, not the 60 Hz used in the USA. 2. When the wind exceeds 49 miles per hour the unit stops producing energy. 3. Since 1 SEK=0.154 $, the hardware of the more powerful V200 would cost in the neighbor of $12,000 plus shipping and installation and they estimate it would produce less than half the power typically used by a family of four.

JosherDee Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm

I lived aboard a sailboat for several years and relied totally on wind generators to keep my batteries topped. Most cost effective, hi producing thing on the market, then and now!

Josh
http://www.anonymize.us.tc

jlo Says:

September 4th, 2008 at 2:23 am

CTGuy67 Says:

“That is great, but until it is available to those of us in North America…what good is it?”

Yah because us North Americans are the only people in the world that need electricity.

worldisone Says:

September 4th, 2008 at 4:59 am

@CTGuy67 & DFH

It is good for the bulk of the world that does operate on 230-240VAC @ 50hz.
Why do so many Americans assume that their way is the only way? Open your eyes a bit folks…

hagbard Says:

September 4th, 2008 at 10:08 am

@worldisone

Not to be an a@%, but when you live somewhere that uses one type of specs, it doesn’t really matter what the rest of the world uses. I don’t think the posters were trying to say ‘why doesn’t everyone make their product so the US can only use it’, but rather can they make a separate verison so we can benefit from their product as well.
Stop being so cynical.

allsmallwindturbines Says:

September 4th, 2008 at 10:26 am

Home Energy is in fact a Dutch company.

The Energy Ball is a great example of making sustainable energy attractive for everybody. Although wind energy will never be fully accepted; even when wind turbines like the Energy Ball are noiseless…

Check for an overview of all the world’s small wind turbines:

http://www.allsmallwindturbines.com

Wind Generator Says:

September 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am

I work for WindEnergy7.com and we have projects in the design, development, sales, and installation of small wind turbines for homes and farms. I applaud the ideas and efforts but I don’t think it can stand up to the long proven small wind systems that we sell today. The good old three blade horizontal turbines we sell have great balance and are simply scaled down versions of the large commercial turbines used by utilities. Wind Energy is not new, and has long been worked on by many brilliant minds and scientifically proven out. The current models of horizontal three bladed design stand up in the wind tunnel, and in the field as the proven concept. See working successful turbines at this URL

http://windenergy7.com/turbines/

JunkkMale Says:

September 5th, 2008 at 11:23 am

Just on an engineering/design note, I was wondering if there is and hence what the reason might be for not having support at both ends of the axis, which surely would help with balance and/or reliability?

I guess it would not look as nice, but is there any other reason. Simple interest; no critique intended.

worldisone Says:

September 5th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

@hagbard,

Yes, I am cynical and, no, you’re not being an a@% but CTGuy67 explicitly states “That is great, but until it is available to those of us in North America…what good is it?”

I say that it is good for the bulk of the world who do operate on 50Hz…if it indeed is as efficient as it claims to be.

I posted (perhaps harshly) at the end of a long day but my sentiment / argument still stands.

Gazza Says:

September 6th, 2008 at 3:52 am

Hmm The americans can just bomb another country for its oil to use in the conventional methods of generation.

Eugene Says:

September 6th, 2008 at 5:37 am

Far from being a bird blender, it looks a bit like the devices my neighbour makes to scare the birds away. Make it the right kinds of shiny colours and no birds should come near it.

CID Says:

September 6th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

I am looking for a wind turbine that can generate 1 kw to 10 Kw per hour and will start turning its blade at a very low windspeed of 2 kilometers per hour.

Can this wind ball turbine meet my requirement. If so, how much will it cost to install a complete system that can generate 1 kilowatt , 3 kilowatts 5kilowatts, 7 kilowatts, 10 kilowatts?

Pleae send reply to my email address.

Thank you.

CID

mak2662 Says:

September 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

Hopefully, it will be cost effective and efficient.

bivaterl Says:

September 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Why create a horizontal fix for the device? Wouldn’t it operate unidirectionally if the anchor point were on the top of the pole and it rotated horizontally instead of vertically? Then you could simplify most of the moving parts, leaving only a ball that would work under any wind. Am I way off base here?

AlphaBob Says:

September 9th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

If you check the design of the blades, they are NOT symmetrical, so it has a definite orientation requirement.
My guess is they studied many blade designs and picked that one as most efficient given a mount that allowed the turbine to swing.

Anything that is mechanical is a problem. The mount looks very complicated and I wonder how well it will work after 5-20 years of use. I agree with you that eliminating that pivot point would be great. It may be that a redesign with symmetrical blades would allow for efficient horizontal rotation and no need for a movable joint.

This is one of the reasons that I am a fan of solar — no moving parts = fewer parts to break, vibrate, etc.

GreenTV Says:

September 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

This is Lori, CEO of GreenTV. Can anyone help me find one of these to test and validate at our GreenTV research center? If not, other micro wind turbines that we can help promote?

My best to all and, in advance, thank you!

http://www.greentv.com/

Eletruk Says:

September 11th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

According to the schematic on their website, they tie to the power with an inverter, just like a solar array. So that means that you probably can tie to any grid with a properly selected inverter. Since I really don’t read Swedish, I don’t know if the turbine outputs AC or DC, so I wouldn’t know the actual type of inverter needed. But as in any home power project, you would need an inverter to get a real usable power output anyways.

Guillermo Says:

September 12th, 2008 at 2:54 am

To JunkkMale:

I was looking at the design and thinking the same thing, and also that it would wear more evenly if there were supports on both sides. My guess as to why there is only one bar is that putting another one on the other side means creating unnecessary friction, which reduces efficiency. You’d think it’d increase the life of the mechanism by reducing side-to-side grind on the pivot point, though (like what AlphaBob was discussing). But who knows. Maybe that’s just the style the makers thought looked the best. I won’t pretend to be an expert!

Wind Generator Says:

September 21st, 2008 at 5:47 am

Well. If you look at the design of this thing it couldn’t be more mechanically flawed. The turbine weight is leveraged so far from its support. It may look nice as a asthetic design but it’s just not very well balanced. Think of the strain of 25 years on a bearing with that poor balance, This is a novelty, not a design that will sustain the test of time and real world trial. It’s really obvious at a glance.

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