Draft for a concept of modular wind generator.

This is a first draft. Any suggestion is welcome.

Goals:

• Minimize the amount of materials (steel, concrete) required per MW of energy produced.
• Modularity.
• Maximize ease of production and/or maintenance (through modularity).
• Simplifying design.
• Make the basic design adaptable to different scales and to different contexts (small-scale, large scale, urban, land, sea, …) through modular design.
• Minimise cost.
• Minimise complexity.
• Make manufacture, deployment, easier (via modularity)

The idea is to use small, interchangeable elements in order to build a
large 2D or 3D structure from an array of elementary elements (like Legos basically) to build large sails-like (or wall-like or billboard-like wind catching surfaces).

Each elementary “Lego” is a small self-contained wind turbine made up of a concentric rotor and stator, driven by a sail made of two semicircular surfaces (instead of blades); the axis of rotation is vertical.

Each element can be removed/replaced for maintenance purposes.

Each element possesses its own power source (alternator/dynamo).

Elements can be wired in parallel (rows, for instances) in order to increase current (amps), the rows, in turn can be connected in series to obtain any possible desired tension (from Volts to kV, in order to achieve any desired tension without transformer).

The surface can be arbitrary large (therefore the extracted power can be arbitrary large).

The frames can be stacked in a 3D structure.

The whole structure can be put on the ground or at any required height (like a giant billboard or like the screen of a drive-in movie theater).

Due to the simple geometry of the whole structure, the system can be automatically monitored and serviced by robotic means (hence the maintenance can be automated)