You can charge your mobile phone using 100% green energy thanks to these bladeless wind turbines from Vortex Bladeless.
If you install a Vortex Bladeless wind turbine on your property, you can charge your mobile phone with your own bladeless wind turbine. Yes, you’re reading that right: it will be possible to have a small wind turbine in your back garden or attached to your roof and use it to deliver power.
You’ll have something tangible, right in front of your face and not outsourced miles away you have to trust is being delivered through credits. Even better, these turbines don’t need to have spinning blades that can make is an eyesore. In fact, your bladeless wind turbine can be very discreet while still giving you enough power operate multiple electrical items in your home.
Okay, there is one catch. This new tech isn’t quite ready for widespread public use or as a mobile charging accessory in your homw. The Spanish company has a small team and the support of some important backers including the European Investment Bank and Mitsubishi Chemical Group. However, Vortex Bladeless is still in the process of making sure the technology will work at scale and be reliable for widespread use.
Patented Technology
From 2014 until now, Vortex Bladeless have successfully registered at least two patents directly related to wind turbine energy generation. Most importantly, these patents cover an electrical power generator that has a capture element and ‘at least one generator element’. The capture element is placed in a fluid (in this case the air) and uses vortices created by the air to generate electricity.
One really important patent for this bladeless wind turbine specifically talks about being a wind turbine secured to the ground with a base or on a mast. The patented bladeless wind turbine would then be able to capture energy through oscillation and make that oscillation energy into electrical energy.
These are two patents for the design of bladeless wind turbines that capture energy through movement by air currents and from vortices generated by the movement of air around them.
A.K.A wind turbines without blades.
Origin of Bladeless Turbine Idea
Originally, the idea came from seeing bridges swaying in the wind. We had no idea, but a lot of kinetic energy can be gleaned from the movement of bridges.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the above images.
The company Vortex was created by David Yáñez, the inventor of this bladeless wind turbine as a co-founder in 2012. Yáñez saw a video of Tacoma Narrows Bridge that showed it bending and buckling in the wind like jelly. Have a look at a video of how Tacoma Narrows Bridge was moving and why it collapsed with a really easy to understand explanation.
The great news is Yáñez and Vortex Bladeless now have a lot of partners working with them to get this off the ground.
How Do Vortex Bladeless Wind Turbones Look?
So exactly what do windless blade turbines look like? The new Vortex Bladeless wind turbines look just like silos, but really thin. We think Vortex bladeless wind turbines can be a great alternative to the wind turbines people apparently don’t like and someone said cause cancer.
Vortex Bladeless wind turbines will actually be “less aggressive than traditional wind power, which allows it to be placed anywhere without disturbing people nor wild- life.” – Vortex Bladeless.
Vortex Bladeless Wind Turbine Awards
Vortex Bladeless wind turbines actually have some pedigree in the renewable energy space, having entered the 2021 Social Innovation Tournament and were selected to attend the INSEAD Social entrepreneurship programme.
According to their website, Vortex Bladeless have won awards for:
- 2017 – Innovation PYME of Spanish Government
- 2016 – EU’s SME instrument Seal of Excellence
- 2016 – “Renovable del Año 2016“ at 10th ‘Abulenses’ phase of Energy
- 2014 – The South Summit Award (category of energy and industry)
- 2014 – “Caja de Ingenieros” Entrepreneurs Award
- 2012 – “Fondo de Emprendedores” Repsol Foundation Award
The river of awards seems not to be flowing so freely right now, but this is to be expected. As a technology moves from being just a concept into proving it can be scaled, priorities shift. Vortex Bladeless will now be concentrating on making the business viable long term.
Great Clean Charging Potential
We’re really excited about the potential Vortex Bladeless has, so this is a company we’d like to keep an eye on. Maybe you’ll one day see a bladeless wind turbine outside Greenermobiles.com HQ?
Brighton is such a forward looking Town, we can imagine having these being placed in appropriate locations. Wind turbines are a great way to generate clean energy. Bladeless wind turbines allow for this without drawing unnecessary attention, potentially injuring birds and taking up a much smaller footprint.
Where Can We Use Bladeless Wind Turbines?
Judging from this global wind atlas that actually cuts off a lot of the southern extremities, a lot of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, we think a lot of places. New Zealand are one set of islands not on the map we imagine is quite windy, so able to take great advantage of this technology.
Anyway, here in Britain we’re of course prime candidates, along with Norway and Iceland. There are also a few other hotspots around the (limited) world of this atlas and there should be no shortage of a target market. One big possibility could be small scale or portable use of the turbines to deliver power to small communities in remote areas.
High Density Communities
Let’s take Nova Scotia as an example. Although it has only 2.62% of the nation’s population, Nova Scotia actually has the second highest population density in Canada. Winter is harsh over there, so a reliable power source is essential.
To help wean the population from their fossil fuel, bladeless wind turbines can really help on a small scale. Instead of huge wind turbines, the supply of energy can be democratised thanks to these bladeless beauties.
Although Nova Scotia is making the slow transition to green energy, there is a real effort to actually do something. As soon as the Vortex bladeless wind turbines become available, this is the kind of target market we think they’d find a lot of joy.
So that’s our take on the Vortex Bladeless wind turbines. We think this technology has great potential to power not just our mobile phones, but our homes too. As bladeless wind turbine technology matures, we see no reason why we couldn’t all have a small model attached to our house providing out basic power needs and a green electricity grid there as a backup during peak times.