| Welcome to WinDynamo.com Brought to you by Free Wind, LLC |
| Energy for the taxpayers, NOT subsidized by them! |
This animation is an air molecule's eye-view of a passage through a WinDynamo(tm) vertical-axis wind energy
conversion device (US Patent #6,800,955 and others). It can be the next wind energy technology, solving all the
challenges that current wind energy devices face. Because it is vertical axis, it is silent, vibration-free, can have
built-in short-term energy storage in the form of a specially-designed flywheel, and can use permanent magnet
levitation bearings to minimize energy lost to friction and greatly reduce maintenance costs.
Because WinDynamo's exterior structure is stationary, it can be protected with a mesh, so that it CANNOT
HARM BIRDS OR BATS or interfere with radar. The stationary exterior also allows for lightening rods to be
installed, and reduces visual impact. No gear-box means no overheating-caused fires.
conversion device (US Patent #6,800,955 and others). It can be the next wind energy technology, solving all the
challenges that current wind energy devices face. Because it is vertical axis, it is silent, vibration-free, can have
built-in short-term energy storage in the form of a specially-designed flywheel, and can use permanent magnet
levitation bearings to minimize energy lost to friction and greatly reduce maintenance costs.
Because WinDynamo's exterior structure is stationary, it can be protected with a mesh, so that it CANNOT
HARM BIRDS OR BATS or interfere with radar. The stationary exterior also allows for lightening rods to be
installed, and reduces visual impact. No gear-box means no overheating-caused fires.
Wind Power
Without the Handicaps
For millennia, humans have made use of the wind to power their boats and ships and for centuries, to power grinding mills,
water pumps and other machinery.
During the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries, this cleanest and most abundant source of energy was
mostly supplanted by other sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels.
In the last half of the 20th and early part of the 21st centuries, because we see that fossil fuels will not last forever, and
despoil the air and water we need to survive, this ancient source of energy has made a resurgence, but the technology used
to exploit it has remained essentially unchanged since the 18th Century. The devices used to extract energy from the wind
today must be relegated to areas where there are few people to be disturbed by their noise and visual intrusion, or
structures to be damaged should their propellers break and fly with the wind. These and other draw-backs to conventional
wind energy devices have made the resurgence of wind energy slow, expensive and complicated with the necessity to
transmit the electricity made in remotely-located “wind farms” to the cities and suburbs, where it is to be used.
Now there is technology which can make wind power acceptable and safe in civilized society, and even make it capable of
being wed to solar power generation, and clean forms of energy storage, which can help solve many of the handicaps of
wind power generation, such as the variability and intermittent nature of wind.
The technology which can make wind power practical, safe and unobtrusive is called WinDynamo(tm). This device uses a
stationary outer structure to collect, accelerate and guide the moving air upward into two vortices, one upstream of (below)
and the other downstream of (above) a specially designed turbine mounted on a vertical drive shaft. The whirling air in the
lower (“drive”) vortex is redirected by the turbine blades, which are driven in the direction of rotation by the force of the
direction change, and by aerodynamic lift generated by the airfoil shape of the blades. The downstream (“extraction”)
vortex creates a very low-pressure area above the turbine, which enhances the speed and power with which the high-
velocity air flows through the turbine.
The drive shaft driven by the turbine drives a multi-purpose, disk-shaped flywheel in the lower part of the device, with a
cooling fan as a hub a specially designed fluid tank, which provides the mass to keep the system spinning during lulls in the
wind and powerful permanent magnets mounted on its rim, which produce electrical current in stationary copper windings
mounted on the inside of the wall of the flywheel chamber.
The flywheel’s fluid tank contains radial bulkheads with one-way valves, which allow the fluid (water + antifreeze) to flow
through opposite the direction of rotation, but not in the direction of rotation, allowing the flywheel to accelerate easily,
without the inertia of having to accelerate the entire mass of the fluid at once, but stirring the fluid, in a few seconds, up to
the RPM of the tank. When the wind drops off, the one-way valves (“port-holes”) close, causing the entire mass of the fluid
to provide the force to keep the system spinning until the next gust of wind.
Because it spins on a vertical axis, the drive train can be suspended in “passive” (permanent magnet) bearings, so that the
moving part of the machine makes no physical contact with the stationary part. This eliminates the need for lubrication,
greatly increases the serviceable life of the machine, and greatly reduces the need for costly maintenance.
The drive shaft of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a compressed-air turbine so that when the generator is producing
more electricity than is needed, during low-demand or high-wind periods, the excess electricity can be used to compress air
into large storage tanks, and the compressed air can be used to drive the WinDynamo generator when more electricity is
needed than the wind currently blowing will produce.
The system can be regulated by a relatively simple computer, which is fed the shaft RPM, wind-speed, air temperature,
barometric pressure, and other relevant information by sensors, and which controls a transformer, which adjusts the current
flow through the electric coils, and compressed-air valve to control the RPM and provide the needed electricity, while
making optimum use of whatever wind is blowing. The computer can also control a defrosting system to keep the machine
operable in snow or ice storms.
Unlike conventional propeller-type wind-energy conversion devices, the WinDynamo will be capable of producing
electricity in very low and very high winds, and because it doesn’t need laminar air-flow and can use swirling and turbulent
winds it will be deployable in areas (such as cities and suburbs) with many obstructions to wind flow.
The stationary outer cowling of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a mesh that will prevent birds, bats and air-borne debris
from entering it, eliminating the last legitimate objection to wind energy development: wild-life casualties.
WinDynamo technology was recently the subject of a 14-month scientific study at the University of Utah Department of
Engineering. The study concluded that the design is scientifically sound, and would be capable of producing power in higher
winds than conventional propeller-style wind power units, as well as being tolerant of turbulent, shifting and gusty winds.
We are seeking a corporate partner to continue the R&D process and get products based on this design to the market.
Contact:
William K. "Bil" McDavid, Jr.
Founder/Inventor
Free Wind, LLC
bil@WinDynamo.com
Without the Handicaps
For millennia, humans have made use of the wind to power their boats and ships and for centuries, to power grinding mills,
water pumps and other machinery.
During the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries, this cleanest and most abundant source of energy was
mostly supplanted by other sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels.
In the last half of the 20th and early part of the 21st centuries, because we see that fossil fuels will not last forever, and
despoil the air and water we need to survive, this ancient source of energy has made a resurgence, but the technology used
to exploit it has remained essentially unchanged since the 18th Century. The devices used to extract energy from the wind
today must be relegated to areas where there are few people to be disturbed by their noise and visual intrusion, or
structures to be damaged should their propellers break and fly with the wind. These and other draw-backs to conventional
wind energy devices have made the resurgence of wind energy slow, expensive and complicated with the necessity to
transmit the electricity made in remotely-located “wind farms” to the cities and suburbs, where it is to be used.
Now there is technology which can make wind power acceptable and safe in civilized society, and even make it capable of
being wed to solar power generation, and clean forms of energy storage, which can help solve many of the handicaps of
wind power generation, such as the variability and intermittent nature of wind.
The technology which can make wind power practical, safe and unobtrusive is called WinDynamo(tm). This device uses a
stationary outer structure to collect, accelerate and guide the moving air upward into two vortices, one upstream of (below)
and the other downstream of (above) a specially designed turbine mounted on a vertical drive shaft. The whirling air in the
lower (“drive”) vortex is redirected by the turbine blades, which are driven in the direction of rotation by the force of the
direction change, and by aerodynamic lift generated by the airfoil shape of the blades. The downstream (“extraction”)
vortex creates a very low-pressure area above the turbine, which enhances the speed and power with which the high-
velocity air flows through the turbine.
The drive shaft driven by the turbine drives a multi-purpose, disk-shaped flywheel in the lower part of the device, with a
cooling fan as a hub a specially designed fluid tank, which provides the mass to keep the system spinning during lulls in the
wind and powerful permanent magnets mounted on its rim, which produce electrical current in stationary copper windings
mounted on the inside of the wall of the flywheel chamber.
The flywheel’s fluid tank contains radial bulkheads with one-way valves, which allow the fluid (water + antifreeze) to flow
through opposite the direction of rotation, but not in the direction of rotation, allowing the flywheel to accelerate easily,
without the inertia of having to accelerate the entire mass of the fluid at once, but stirring the fluid, in a few seconds, up to
the RPM of the tank. When the wind drops off, the one-way valves (“port-holes”) close, causing the entire mass of the fluid
to provide the force to keep the system spinning until the next gust of wind.
Because it spins on a vertical axis, the drive train can be suspended in “passive” (permanent magnet) bearings, so that the
moving part of the machine makes no physical contact with the stationary part. This eliminates the need for lubrication,
greatly increases the serviceable life of the machine, and greatly reduces the need for costly maintenance.
The drive shaft of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a compressed-air turbine so that when the generator is producing
more electricity than is needed, during low-demand or high-wind periods, the excess electricity can be used to compress air
into large storage tanks, and the compressed air can be used to drive the WinDynamo generator when more electricity is
needed than the wind currently blowing will produce.
The system can be regulated by a relatively simple computer, which is fed the shaft RPM, wind-speed, air temperature,
barometric pressure, and other relevant information by sensors, and which controls a transformer, which adjusts the current
flow through the electric coils, and compressed-air valve to control the RPM and provide the needed electricity, while
making optimum use of whatever wind is blowing. The computer can also control a defrosting system to keep the machine
operable in snow or ice storms.
Unlike conventional propeller-type wind-energy conversion devices, the WinDynamo will be capable of producing
electricity in very low and very high winds, and because it doesn’t need laminar air-flow and can use swirling and turbulent
winds it will be deployable in areas (such as cities and suburbs) with many obstructions to wind flow.
The stationary outer cowling of the WinDynamo can be fitted with a mesh that will prevent birds, bats and air-borne debris
from entering it, eliminating the last legitimate objection to wind energy development: wild-life casualties.
WinDynamo technology was recently the subject of a 14-month scientific study at the University of Utah Department of
Engineering. The study concluded that the design is scientifically sound, and would be capable of producing power in higher
winds than conventional propeller-style wind power units, as well as being tolerant of turbulent, shifting and gusty winds.
We are seeking a corporate partner to continue the R&D process and get products based on this design to the market.
Contact:
William K. "Bil" McDavid, Jr.
Founder/Inventor
Free Wind, LLC
bil@WinDynamo.com
Clean Energy for the 21st Century
Vote to fund our R&D on the GE Ecomagination Challenge website:
http://challenge.ecomagination.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=ideas&idea_id=D8AAF1A7-534D-49C
4-A591-53420A0B4E09 (Link not working, please cut and paste to your Browser's window.)
http://challenge.ecomagination.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=ideas&idea_id=D8AAF1A7-534D-49C
4-A591-53420A0B4E09 (Link not working, please cut and paste to your Browser's window.)
Vote to help Mother Earth every day starting July 1st:
http://RefreshEverything.com/FreeWindProject2
http://RefreshEverything.com/FreeWindProject2