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| The Pyramidal Solar Windmill |
Here is a new concept presented to researchers to examine
further for the first time in this public blog. It has been named the New Pyramidal Solar Windmill Essentially it consists of a standard windmill mounted on a narrow
hexagonal pyramid base. Three of its pyramid faces in the southern direction
are used to mount
Solar Photo Voltaic cells.
The hollow base houses machinery to integrate the outputs of the windmill and
solar cells. The figure here is merely a schematic and the exact configuration and design would emerge only from further analysis. The blogger throws this open to any interested researcher/designer for further investigation. A hexagonal rather than a pyramid of fewer sides will withstand wind loads better.
Whenever the use of solar or wind generated electricity is considered the intermittent nature of these sources is a concern. Using the two together reduces the level of interruptions. When solar alone is used on land as opposed to roof tops the concern is the loss of land for agricultural purpose. However when solar PVs are used as in the present design ground coverage is minimal because of use of a vertical space and the surrounding land may still be put to selected agricultural application.
The use of vertical spaces for Solar PV can be used independent of a windmill too, to minimize land use but then the additional cost of a vertical structure when a building is not available for the mounting would have to be borne.A windmill already provides that vertical structure because of it s height and several other geometric configurations are possible to make use of that for mounting solar cells, just as long as care is taken to handle wind loads that may result because of that. The problem here is one of aerodynamics too aside from one of solar electricity generation. A collaboration between the two can result in more new innovative configurations of the hybrid solar windmill.
UPDATE: As wind turbines become taller and taller in order to catch higher wind speeds, this solar hybrid would become an even more attractive alternative. See:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/20/3660677/bigger-taller-wind-turbines-will-unlock-wind-power-across-united-states/
Whenever the use of solar or wind generated electricity is considered the intermittent nature of these sources is a concern. Using the two together reduces the level of interruptions. When solar alone is used on land as opposed to roof tops the concern is the loss of land for agricultural purpose. However when solar PVs are used as in the present design ground coverage is minimal because of use of a vertical space and the surrounding land may still be put to selected agricultural application.
The use of vertical spaces for Solar PV can be used independent of a windmill too, to minimize land use but then the additional cost of a vertical structure when a building is not available for the mounting would have to be borne.A windmill already provides that vertical structure because of it s height and several other geometric configurations are possible to make use of that for mounting solar cells, just as long as care is taken to handle wind loads that may result because of that. The problem here is one of aerodynamics too aside from one of solar electricity generation. A collaboration between the two can result in more new innovative configurations of the hybrid solar windmill.
UPDATE: As wind turbines become taller and taller in order to catch higher wind speeds, this solar hybrid would become an even more attractive alternative. See:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/20/3660677/bigger-taller-wind-turbines-will-unlock-wind-power-across-united-states/
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