Next stage of the development of Wind Lens

Application of the Wind Lens to mid to large size wind turbines

Since wind load on the Wind-Lens turbine is larger than typical wind turbins, application of the Wind Lens to turbins in larger size faces stractural challang. As a part of development of next generation Wind-Lens turbines, two mid-size (100 kW with wind speed 12m/s) wind-lens turbines have been currently constructed at Ito campus of Kyushu University. This version of the turbine has much larger structural dimensions than our 5kW turbines. The 100 kW turbine has a rotor which spans 12.8 m in diameter, difuser diameter 15.4m, and the whole structure reaches 34 m high above the ground. This project is an important mile stone toward an ongoing project of off-shore energy farm.

Wind Lens and off-shore wind farm

The first stage of off-shore wind farm development has begun. A set of water tank experiments has been carried out recently as a preparation for near future construction of off-shore wind farm built on a floating structure on Hakata-bay (18m in float diameter, with a couple of 5kW Wind-Lens turbines). We are preparing for the construction possibly as early as Autumn 2011. This plan leads us to the second stage development of the wind farm, which consists of larger floating structure (60m in diameter, with a couple of 100kW Wind-Lens turbines). The planned location is Genkai-nada Sea, Fukuoka.

Wind farm model experiment in the large water tank at RIAM

Hakata-bay off-shore wind farm plan (RIAM off-shore wind farm team)