The market
The global market for turbines was evaluated in 2010 at +$ 100 billion. The global demand for wind turbines should grow at an annual rate over 6 %, with the effect of a strong expected expansion of wind turbines. A spectacular fall in the demand for gas and steam turbines of around 44% for Spanish public services (30 billion euros), 27% for Enel, Italian market leader, and 17% for E .On, the German group (6 billion euros), the market has experienced its highest decline in decades. However, the International Energy Agency provides that global energy consumption (and demand for turbines) will increase by 44 % between 2006 and 2030, which will guarantee stable growth of 2 % per year outside of OECD. Since Europe needs 275 GW new capacities by 2020, partly due to the aging of existing power plants, global demand will certainly resume. There are two basic types: the pulse turbine and the reaction turbine. The reaction turbines work with pressure variations, the pulse turbines leave air or liquid with lower kinetic energy. The world's largest suppliers of turbines include General Electric, Siemens, Alstom and ABB. General Electric operates the largest gas manufacturing plant in the world in Greenville, in South Carolina. Denmark Vestas A/S is the largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world. However, Sinovel, Goldwind and Dongfang are three Chinese competitors who quickly get closer to all fronts.
Innovation
The turbine market has been the subject of many innovations to increase its effectiveness. Combined production of heat (steam) and electricity, also known as cogeneration, is one of the low -yielding fruits that has been harvested over the past decade. Europe currently produces 11 % of its electricity by cogeneration, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland being in the lead. Con Edison, the American electricity company provides steam to 100,000 Manhattan buildings, in New York State, using the excess heat of 7 energy power plants in the region. Many efforts have been devoted to the design of the blades, some moving away from smooth forms. This innovation known as the Blades Tubercle blades is inspired by whales and has increased the efficiency by 20 % while considerably reducing noise. However, most turbines are designed to operate with steam and gas, while the greatest efficiency can be reached in the water which is - to be precise - 823 times more dense. Aaron Davidson is an inventor who is closely interested in the dynamics of fluids and radiofrequencies and has been working since 1994 on Venturi turbines. He studied the effect of a wind -shaped sheath forcing water to go through an entrance that shrinks, which, after crossing the throat, creates a low pressure whirlwind behind the turbine, pulling the flow through the turbine. He then built large venturi turbines and tested its efficiency. When he realized that efficiency could be multiplied by 3.8 compared to the same turbine without the fairing, he perfected the system by a process of tests and errors. Aaron established the world record (which still holds) in 2003 for the highest efficiency ever reached with a hydraulic turbine, exceeding the engineers of Northrop Grumman Aero Space which had set the best record to date in 1978. Based on the basis of 'Convincing advances, Aaron then created Tidal Energy Pty Ltd (Australia) in 1999 with Craig Hill to form a team capable of covering civil, structural, mechanical, sailor and environmental engineering. The flow of water in the duct (or the envelope) with a turbine located in the narrowed throat makes it possible to obtain a better yield and a multiplied output. The turbine runs at a speed of 20 to 30 laps per minute, which makes it safe for aquatic life. The design of the device is simplistic and conducive to mass production with the ease of mounting and flat packaging for transport. The Queensland government has obtained support from the local Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund and the Australian Federal Government has granted a subsidy to market this new technology. In 2005, Aaron and Craig tested their units and concluded that time was ready for marketing. While the Australian government has never calculated the potential of this type of energy for the whole country, the United Kingdom has established that this innovation could provide up to 59 GW of electricity to the British islands.
The first cash flow
The trials have managed to inject electricity into the network for as little as 1% per kWh with an investment cost of one million dollars for a megawatt of production capacity. A new wrapped turbine provided by Tidal Energy generates as much as three free flow turbines. The use of high quality extruded materials and the simplification of the design has further reduced investment expenditure. The bio-hindrance, one of the problems typical of any water-based system, is overcome thanks to the higher speed inside the duct. When the Latin Energy Investment Group, based in Florida, learned that it was possible to produce in series and wrap the turbines shipped by container all over the world for final assembly and installation, it immediately signed a Order form of Australian $ 18 million.
The opportunity
The wrapped turbine can be placed over the rivers, at the entrance to the bays, between the islands and the continent, as well as in the open ocean currents. While this system works in one direction, it could include a switching device to follow the inversion of ocean currents after reflux and tide. The device could also be fixed at the outlet of the hydroelectric power plants downstream of the dams, which would make it possible to exploit the energy lost differently. It is the cogeneration of water flows and the exploitation of full power of gravity in the future. The obvious application is to place the wrapped turbine in ocean currents with fast flow. These wind turbines could be considered as underwater wind farms more like a reaction engine since the design in Venturi accelerates the flow through the wind turbine. A 15 km/h water flow is equivalent to the same power as a wind of 380 km/h. This innovation makes the construction of wind farms at sea an expensive and uncompetitive option. Instead of significant and very expensive and very costly investments with offshore wind farms that are at least $ 100 million, Davidson-Hill Venturi wind turbines is aimed at small and medium Investors at a cost of a million dollars per unit, reducing the cost per hundred, thus offering entrepreneurs a hundred times more the opportunity to embark on a new and effective form of energy access. The most attractive argument in favor of the wrapped turbine proposed by Aaron and Craig is perhaps that it can work in a limited space and that its design can be adjusted according to the available areas. The same technology that could make the islands self -sufficient in energy could feed mountain communities near cold streams and glacial lakes. A country rich in water like Japan could quickly exploit the power of its excessive rains in the mountains and reduce its dependence on nuclear. A country like Bhutan, which has already invested in regular flow turbines, could triple its electricity production with the existing water flow - and due to climate change, probably down - and simply go from a model to the other once the existing turbines have been put out of service. Considering that electricity is the main export of the country, it would be the application of the basic principle of the blue economy "to use what we have in order to generate development without the need for additional material consumption.
