TouchWind

Stuff on TouchWind:

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Looks like a watered-down, single-rotor version of my renderings from years ago, where I pioneered the floating, downwind-tilting offshore turbine concept. And I also fabricate and use a lot of one-piece rotors. They didn’t include many details of that one-piece rotor, but it looked like too wide of a chord, making a very high-solidity rotor, compared to real rotors. Anyway, if you look at their logo, they show the 3 imaginary wind swirls like Makani. This sort of logo is a hallmark of failed wind energy concepts. For some reason, that same basic logo seems very attractive to wind newbies destined to fall by the wayside. As with “Wherebrain” making us ask “Where IS their brain?”, "Touchwind makes me ask “Are they “touched”?” :slight_smile:

insane new turbine promises unlimited cheap energy

Some good news here; by 2030 we should know the actual LCOE on this one.

Also interesting is the idea that the wake is beng downwards, something this design would have in common with many AWE systems

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Makani filed a patent for a tilted turbine:

And also the representation of the wind in the photo looks like the Makani logo. Maybe it’s pure coincidence.

Haven’t I already debunked this one on this forum?
Pretty sure I have amply dissected it.
Just the idea that it will project the wake downward, and thereby reduce wake interference with downwind turbines, seems dubious to me. It’s just a desperate claim to get attention. And their video promoted the “drum” version throughout, only admitting near the end that they had recently determined that the “drum” float design might not withstand hurricane-force winds after all with the inherent 90-foot waves (oh well, so much for that typical, ridiculous claim), and so they have a “new” version, but they don’t show exactly what their new float is - they just briefly showed someone else’s model floating foundation in a tank, and instead go back to promoting their original “drum” design. So much of this kind of stuff on youtube, especially lately, is A.I.-generated clickbait. Yes the Makani-esque swirling-wind logo is a huge red flag. See, this is what is so funny about wannabe wind energy “improvements”: they all make the same silly claims, and so many use the same logo - like chicken pox has a symptom of red spots - then they protest: “How can you say I have chicken pox?” They never realize how silly they look to people in the know, or even just people who pay the least bit of attention. :slight_smile:

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@dougselsam could you comment on the marine growth 3D print? I think that was a nice touch, right?

Hi Tallak: I remembered where I did debunk this project: In the comments section of their youtube video.
Yes, of course, 3-D printing!!! Wheeee! And with concrete - of course!

“Mission creep” has them adding a “swiss cheese” concrete anchor block to promote undersea wildlife.
One more pathetic, symbolic diversion toward politically-correct “box-checking”, rather than concentrating on what they said they are all about: producing power. The sad thing is there are deranged investors who will respond positively to such B.S. and throw money at it (into the La Brea Tar Pits).

These people are Soooooo disconnected from reality. Do you realize how difficult wind energy is? Even the very best manufacturers can barely break even! We’re talking Vestas, Siemens, and G.E.
And that’s with all the incentives! You are trying to make money by selling a system where the buyer can only get 4 cents/kWh. It’s like trying to make a living from walking down the street picking up the occasional penny laying on the sidewalk! Spending millions to create machines that can scrape up pennies! And we’re all gonna solve it hiring huge teams of kids who barely know what they are doing, to fly kites? OMG!!!

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Unlike here, the comments under the video have some insights. For example:

Doug comments:

An excerpt of the text below the video:

Not only that, but it tilts up and down depending on the wind speeds.

An old video from @dougselsam shows a similar solution:

The turbines fly up, to a more horizontal position, for overspeed protection, using the normal thrust force on the horizontal-axis-type rotor to fly as a gyrocopter, in response to excessively high wind speeds.

This video (already presented in the forum):

FLYING WIND TURBINE TILTS UP, SUSPENDED FROM TOWER

TouchWind website:

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That commenter probably worked for the company that contacted me a few years ago about using SuperTurbines as RAM air turbines for jetliners. He does show at least “a little knowledge” about wind turbine technology. He misses a lot too though. And it is common for single-piece, two-bladed rotors to just be called “a blade” - just a matter of word preference. Depends whether you want to talk fast, or insist on being technically accurate.

To me though, the TouchWind (can I say the promoters are “touched”?) shows almost zero knowledge of wind energy technology. The elephant in the room is they left out the main feature that anyone who knew what they were doing would have included. No I’m not going to tell you what it is - if you don’t know, that’s about par for this course. :slight_smile:

Seawind also wants to do floating wind, also with two blades instead of three: Slow Chat III - #139 by Windy_Skies. They use a teetering hinge.

The history of Growian, another two-bladed downwind turbine: Slow Chat III - #138 by Windy_Skies.

And Nautica Windpower is linked on Floating wind turbine - Wikipedia, but I didn’t see recent activity.