Meet EWICON – the wind turbine without blades
The future of hydro power could look like this, low maintenance, quiet wind to power generator
If you thought blade driven wind turbines were efficient, you’ve seen nothing yet. This EWICON system manages to capture wind power but without any moving blades – meaning lower maintenance costs and no noise.
One of the issues for wind turbine uptake has been noise. The EWICON prototype, developed by Mecanoo Architects at Delft University, will make no noise and require little to no maintenance as it has no major moving parts.
So, the science bit. Essentially the EWICON lets wind move charged particles against their natural course to create energy – much like rolling a rock up a hill increases its potential energy. Checkout the video below for a more detailed explanation.
Here’s hoping these continue to get funding so we can start using them worldwide for more compact, efficient and quiet wind turbine power generation.
[via DesignBoom]
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