Post 7 Alternatives – Wind Turbine

For my final project, I would like to create a sort of wind turbine using a minimalist approach as that would allow me to try and minimize the amount of color to try and obtain a sleek looking final product. However, I have yet to commit fully to whether I would like to create a vertical turbine or a horizontal one even though I was initially leaning toward the vertical one. The pros and cons of the horizontal wind turbine are that it has a greater efficiency than the vertical wind turbine but it requires the fans to be perpendicular to the direction of the wind to obtain this higher efficiency. The pros and cons of the vertical wind turbine are that the it can use wind of any direction to generate electricity but it has a much lower efficiency than the horizontal wind turbine as a result. However, the main reason that I am now leaning more towards the vertical wind turbine is because it is symmetrical and would look quite good as a result with the minimalistic aesthetic I have chosen.

Below is a quick sketch of what I imagine a minimalistic approach would look like for both my vertical and horizontal wind turbine designs:

The design of the turbine as not been fully fleshed out in these sketches, but I have identified that I most likely will require a gearbox to increase the rotational speeds of the rotor to higher speeds to increase the amount of electricity generated with the generator. I will also require a dc motor which will act as the generator in this case as it is cheap, easy to find, and simple to understand. The two aesthetics that I looked into alternatives for are the industrial aesthetic and a wasteland/apocalyptic aesthetic.

The industrial aesthetic would consist of using metal and common types of components found in factories such as using 8020 for the construction of the tower and the base support.

The wasteland aesthetic would include using some fabric pinched between some sort of screen as the wind turbine blades. In the picture above, I envisioned using some connected pipes to make this screen border. It would also be placed directly into the ground to conserve materials from making the base and make it more transportable. The tower may also be constructed with pipes to further enhance that aesthetic.