​Vertical turbines are more efficient than traditional windmill turbines


 

New research from Oxford Brookes University has found that the vertical turbine design is far more efficient than traditional turbines in large scale wind farms, and when set in pairs the vertical turbines increase each other’s performance by up to 15%, unlike horizontal wind turbines that disrupt each other if placed too close.

A research team from Oxford Brookes University led by Professor Iakovos Tzanakis have undertaken an in-depth study using more than 11,500 hours of computer simulations to show that wind farms can perform more efficiently by substituting the traditional propeller type Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), for compact Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs). 

This study shows that future wind farms should be vertical which will increase the efficiency of the wind farm and also produce more electricity. Using computational methods  they have shown that vertical wind turbines put together in an array the front row facing the wind can convert 50% of the power of the wind and the back row can successfully convert 25-30%

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