Wind farms are still a relatively new form of sustainable technology. There is still a lot of room for a improvement and a few visionaries over at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have gone so far as to forget about the air and look to the water for the answers on how best to build a wind farm. More specifically, they decided to study schools of fish.
In the current standard practice, most wind farms are constructed using horizontal axis turbines because they generate more substantial power from the air flow instead of vertical axis turbines. The problem with this model is that the maximum power a rotor can extract is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. (And if that sentence was like wind through your ears – what you need to know is that there are limitations on the power that can be generated by a wind farm based on its given area of land. The wind turbines need to be ten diameters apart or bad stuff happens). Pondering this paradox, Pasadena scientists wondered – is there a way to overcome this?
That’s where Nemo comes in. More than just a movie star, he knows a thing or two about science. When traveling in his school of fish, Nemo is participating in the Karman vortex street – an aerodynamic phenomenon that keeps school of fish synchronized and reduces the total propulsive power needed per fish. This anecdotal evidence proves that by putting wind turbines closer together – there is actually potential to create more energy instead of less. The Karmen vortex street is an effect that also reduces the fuel consumption of vehicles traveling in a platoon – (which is why you always see your dad trying to follow in the wake of semis on those long distance family road trips). In scientific terms, the order of magnitude can increase the power of density. In layman’s terms, evidence is clearly preliminary, but scientists have stumbled upon a kind of “Eureka!” moment in sustainability. How do we know? Because they’re already pulling out the patents….but poor Nemo probably won’t get a cut on this one. He’s already famous enough.
