Smart Wind Generators - Isis Project No 3185

Smart Wind Generator technology that is efficient, virtually silent, protects the wind turbines very effectively under storm conditions and offers faster return on investment.

Marketing Opportunity

The world wind energy market is growing at a rate of 20% (Frost and Sullivan, F772-14). Oxford wind turbines are aimed as an alternative, low cost water heating system to established solar water heating and other wind turbine products (domestic and industrial). Furthermore, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), 15% of our renewable energy (3% of our electricity) will come from wind power by 2015.

The Oxford Invention

Conventional direct drive wind turbines are inefficient as they are optimised for a single wind speed condition. Variable speed wind turbines (<30kW) having mechanical gearboxes are expensive and require higher maintenance. Many such commercially available machines interface with mains electricity; this dramatically reduces their energy capture efficiency giving unrealistically long payoff times that make them particularly unattractive.

Oxford inventors have designed a new class of wind turbine that incorporates a patented smart electronic gearing system, which generates electricity efficiently at varying wind speeds (see Figure 1).  These wind turbines are fully scalable and target domestic heating.  They are cheap to manufacture and are also capable of capturing the maximum possible fraction of available wind-energy under all typical conditions. A prototype has been built and is being tested. The Oxford wind turbines have several advantages including:

• Affordability and high efficiency
• No complicated and expensive electronics
• Silence due to absence of gearing
• Low maintenance, reliability and storm proof design

Figure 1. Oxford wind turbines tracks the optimal electrical generation for a range of wind speeds.

Patent Status

This work is the subject of a UK patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies or investors interested in commercialising this opportunity. Please contact the Isis Project Manager to discuss this further.

Request Further Information: Project Number 3185 - Smart Wind Generators