California-Energy-Commission-Sponsored Wind Project Quintuples Energy Output for Lower Cost: More rotors equal more power.
July, Fullerton, Calif. – California-Energy-Commission (CEC)-sponsored Selsam Innovations of Fullerton, California, announced today that its unique design of using several rotors on a common drive shaft to capture wind energy provides as much as five times the energy output of the same diameter turbine that uses a single rotor. The co-axial, multi-rotor wind turbine, pioneered by Selsam principal, Doug Selsam, combines the lightweight blades and high revolutions per minute (RPM) of a small turbine with the increased swept area and greater power output of a larger turbine. A single drive shaft tilted at a 25-degree angle exposes each rotor to its own airflow. The high RPM allows a direct-drive generator, eliminating the need for gearing between the shaft and the generator and reducing installation and operation costs.
“We have reduced the array-turbine concept with its known power-gathering advantages, to a single moving part,” said Selsam. “The result is greater energy capture per installation dollar spent.”
In tests funded by the CEC, Selsam’s patented “Superturbine” produced 4,000 watts of electricity at winds of 27 mph. “Compared to a single-rotor turbine of the same diameter which nominally produces 800 watts, output has been multiplied by five times,” said Selsam. Selsam Innovations has been named one of the 50 most innovative companies of 2004 by the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance.
A personal quest to promote the use of wind energy and hydrogen technology in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The Great Lakes area is in a unique position to become an energy exporting region through these and other renewable energy technologies. *Update 2014: Just do it everywhere - Dan*
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