The global turbine market
The global market for turbines and related products, such as engines and generators, is estimated in 2012 at more than $ 100 billion. The strong growth in aeronautical construction and electricity production stimulates demand. While 70 % of the world market is concentrated in North America and Europe, China has the strongest growth. China is starting to produce its own turbines, driven by the demand for wind turbines. Denmark is the only country whose trade balance presents a "surplus of wind turbines" because of its exports of wind turbines.
There are three large market segments for turbines: turbine engines used exclusively to propel planes, gas turbines for electricity production and wind turbines. The demand for wind turbines will exceed that of gas turbines by 2012. Modern wind turbines were sold in 2010 to 1.5 million dollars per megawatt. If the United States had to install 20 % of the energy supply of its country from wind energy, this would be equivalent to a market of $ 250 billion. The global wind turbine market has set a new record in 2011 and reached a total size of 42 gigawatts (GW). The total global capacity is 239 GW in 2012. China has already installed a total capacity of 63 GW.
Wind farmers respond to a specific request with vertical axis (VAWT) wind turbines and horizontal axis (HAWT) wind turbines. The growth in demand is certain, fundamental innovations in the sector are necessary to overcome the limiting factor in rare land metals. An industrial wind turbine uses more than a ton of magnets, 35 % of which use neodymium. Today, China produces 95 % of this metal of rare land. To extract rare land metals, aggressive acids are pumped in type borehole wells where chemicals dissolve all deposits. The slurry is then pumped into ponds with high professional and environmental risks. New sources, new processes and new types of materials will be necessary as the wind energy sector will continue to evolve.
Innovation
Several high -growth green industries depend on rare land metals. Toyota needs 2 to 4 pounds of neodymium and dysprosium for its hybrid engine in its popular Prius and Lanthane for its battery. The Chinese market muscle in rare land metals has been illustrated by the evolution of the BYD battery manufacturer in a high -performance car manufacturer. By 2011, a fleet of electric car taxis byd in Shenzhen (China) with an autonomy of 300 kilometers accumulated 6 million km with an individual mileage of more than 160,000 km. Their exclusive access to rare land metals offers the lever for entering the market. It is in this evolution of the competitive game of green industries in general and the production of energy in particular that the discovery of Shawn Frayne offers a new fundamental approach. He invented the generation of energy with the aerodynamic floating which works without metals of rare earths. In the end, this electricity generator could work without any metal, not even copper or stainless steel.
Shawn Frayne, a graduate of physics, observed how wind pressure generates vibrations in elongated bands and strings. He studied this aerodynamic force which can build and destroy a bridge, as was the case with the Tacoma bridge in the 1940s and which is well known to all construction engineers. This experience has taught experts to design structures capable of resisting this force of nature. Shawn adopts a different approach, and imagined how to go with the flow, designed a system to harvest the power of the beat and transform it into electricity without the need for a turbine.
The creative spirit of this multiple inventor and owner of a portfolio of patents which must be introduced commercially in the field of packaging and purification of water, has settled in Hong Kong. After a cold reception on the part of American venture capital funds, Shawn settled in this Chinese city-state where he and his team develop means to produce electricity without rotation movements and possibly even without metals of rare earths. While science is well established, the conversion into commercial applications emerges after three years of tests and errors.
The first cash flow
The elimination of rare land metals in wind turbines - eliminating turbine - is a revolutionary innovation. While the large-scale market penetration could take another decade or perhaps even a generation, there are multiple niche markets which are clear targets for the young company Humdinger which has received its initial funding in Hong Kong. The miniature wind turn belt is potentially the first commercial application. This tiny device has the ability to replace the sensor batteries. Given that a small burst of wind from barely 10 km/h is enough to generate the energy necessary for the operation of a sensor, a wind turbine could replace, during its lifetime, 100 batteries and hand -The work necessary to change them.
The global sensor market is explosive. From fire detectors to meteorological controls, including the recording of temperature and pH, the modern company is largely based on the remote measurement and independent of dozens of parameters. The possibility of eliminating the sensors operating on battery, combined with the possibility of remaining independent of the network, creates a new commercial opportunity which builds an economic model that works with what you have, a fundamental principle of the blue economy.
The opportunity
The elimination of turbines, magnets and in the very future of all metals, while producing electricity from wind creating aerodynamic vibrations opens up a large portfolio of opportunities to produce and consume locally energy . While the current cost of electricity produced by aeroelastic vibrations already places energy in kilowatt/hour at the same level as all traditional sources, the opportunity goes beyond evidence. A completely new energy concept could emerge with special applications in the Buddhist world.
The first large -scale application of this energy production system could well be done in Bhutan. Each child of these Himalayan nations is growing to become a wind power prospector. For what ? Since the Buddhists pray by putting flags in the wind, the key is to know where there is wind. Each flag mast could be equipped with a cord, attached to a float, producing electricity during prayer. The elongated strip - the wind belt - could even have prayers painted on it. It would be the ultimate form of "holy energy", the more wind there - the more electricity there is - the more we pray!
A million flag masts represent 12 watts per hour per hour per cell cell, a combined potential of 360 megawatts available to communities not affected in the mountains if each flag mast was converted to electricity. It could even become a fashion in cities connected to the network, but where citizens would like to combine energy with spirituality and sustainability.
