# Revolutionary new wind turbine.



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 26, 2016)

Saphon Energy said its new design is quieter, safer and more efficient than traditional wind turbines and is capable of capturing twice as much wind energy.
Resembling a satellite dish, the rotating bowl sits atop a mast to capture wind to move a converter in a figure-of-eight motion.
http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/zero-blade-technology.15.html














Saphon believes that a relatively small number of its 'Saphonian' turbines could provide enough power for a village.

Ani Auoini, co-chairman of Saphon Energy, told Reuters: 'This project that is planned for India consisting of 50 Saphonians producing 20 kilowatts of power, a total of one megawatt, will be a wind farm.

'This power produced in south India, could meet the demands of a small village of 1,000 houses.'

The firm has made strong claims around its device, stating that in tests the Saphonian is more than twice as efficient as traditional blade-based wind turbines. 

It is also said to be able to convert up to 80 per cent of the wind energy hitting the surface.

What's more, the prize-winning design is picking up support from tech giants such as Microsoft, which is looking to such sources of energy production to power its vast cloud computing farms around the world.


----------



## silentbogo (Apr 26, 2016)

Kinda like this?


----------



## qubit (Apr 26, 2016)

Another weird and wonderful post from Caps. 

This thing is kinda weird and I'm not convinced by it. I can just see it seizing up a little too readily with its wobbling motion, especially when it wears and needs maintenance - check out how the whole assembly, including the stationary parts, wobble significantly as it turns. This would be a big problem in a strong wind when it's turning fast.

Also, it's not clear to me how this would capture more wind energy than straightforward blades. I'd like to see independent verification of this critical claim.

It's biggest benefit though is that it does appear to be much safer for birds. This is of course useless if it's not viable as an energy source.


----------



## rruff (Apr 26, 2016)

Just show me the data...


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 26, 2016)

There is a school of thought that wind farms if they spread too far across the earths surface will slow down the earths Rotation further increasing global warning as the surface of the earth will be exposed to longer periods of solar radiation.
Now for something as silly as above









There is a lot of living methane generators in the world
harvest the methane and use it in gas turbine generators


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 26, 2016)

rruff said:


> Just show me the data...




http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/tests-and-results.64.html


----------



## silentbogo (Apr 26, 2016)

BTW, here is another weird bladeless turbine. Has no moving parts and relies on oscillation:








Project was funded on indiegogo for a pilot program in India.


----------



## rruff (Apr 26, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> http://www.saphonenergy.com/site/en/tests-and-results.64.html



No data there.

A couple things I noticed is that their turbines are small in diameter and they only claim ~50% improvement vs 3 blade turbines *with the same swept area.* You can tell by the design that the lateral force (pushing the tower over) will be extreme. The pivots and gears will also be subjected to extreme forces, and probably frictional losses. In high winds, I'd also expect instability. 

So it'll "save the birds" but I doubt it comes close to viability as a cost effective electrical generator, which is the first priority.


----------



## Sasqui (Apr 26, 2016)

Interesting thread on debunking the device here 

https://www.metabunk.org/is-the-saphonian-bladeless-wind-turbine-for-real-or-a-scam.t1672/

Name dropping Microsoft?  Hard to tell.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 26, 2016)

The undebunking post is interesting bearing in mind its 2 years ago.

https://www.metabunk.org/is-the-sap...turbine-for-real-or-a-scam.t1672/#post-136134



and what looks like a portable one


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 26, 2016)

It's hydraulic/electrical. I think it is plausible that it works but I have huge doubts about their efficiency claims.  Traditional wind turbines have momentum on their side so even if the wind dies off between gusts, it keeps spinning.

I think its only advantage of this design is the compact size.


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 27, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> There is a school of thought that wind farms if they spread too far across the earths surface will slow down the earths Rotation ...


I can picture that happening if a parachute was attached to each one 
If that was the case we could speed it up again by placing a rocket on them instead, all facing the same direction of course.


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 27, 2016)

I prefer this type due to efficiency and visibility.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 27, 2016)

These kinds are neat but they're very limited in size:


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 27, 2016)

Efficient but look like they would slice through any wild life that got close


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 27, 2016)

I don't think they're particularly efficient.  Their advantage is that they don't have to follow the wind.  They're omnidirectional.

I don't think they have a reputation for killing wild life.  Most birds that get killed by wind turbines are looking at the generator housing as a place to land/build a nest then they get whacked by the blades.  They can (relatively safely) land on the top of that design.  The rest of it is either spinning so slow it is not a danger or fast enough they know to avoid it (like moving cars).


----------



## Sasqui (Apr 27, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The undebunking post is interesting bearing in mind its 2 years ago.
> 
> https://www.metabunk.org/is-the-sap...turbine-for-real-or-a-scam.t1672/#post-136134
> 
> ...



Wind is blowing from the backside of the dish in that animation.  Smoke and mirrors?


----------



## the54thvoid (Apr 27, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> There is a school of thought that wind farms if they spread too far across the earths surface will slow down the earths Rotation further increasing global warning as the surface of the earth will be exposed to longer periods of solar radiation.



I thought the plausible school of thought was that the more wind turbine farms that develop, the more energy we take out of the weather systems, therefore causing unknown effects on global weather patterns.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 27, 2016)

Sasqui said:


> Wind is blowing from the backside of the dish in that animation.  Smoke and mirrors?




it could be the A/C unit the hi-vis guy is trying to hide


----------



## Eduardo (Oct 26, 2016)

please let me show you this turbine











Hope you like


----------

