Wind Power Systems

 

Paging through the Whole Earth Catalog I ran across a Dunlite Wind Turbine (page 69).  The name rang a bell and realized I had seen one before.  The memory it triggered whisked me back to the late 80’s, early 90’s, when my mom used to skydive.  I spent countless weekends playing in the windswept cornfields and farmland surrounding the drop zone in east central Wisconsin, and the tallest point of the complex was one of these models.

Dunlite was founded in 1935 by Lloyd Dunn in Hindmarsh, Austrailia.  Their models were also sold by Quirk’s Victory Light Company under the Quirk’s name (shown in the Whole Earth Catalog).  These small wind generators were built to provide a power source for isolated, off-grid farms and settlements which were quite common in Australia, as well as rural areas all over the world. These systems would recharge batteries that would continue functioning whether or not there was a sustained wind.  “Whenever there is a lack of main power and a need for simple and economical power generation, there’s a Dunlite wind-driven generator to do the job.”  (Pearen) Here’s an image of a model operating in Antarctica.

Dunlite was absorbed by another company in the 70’s which discontinued their line of turbines, while Quirk’s has moved into the solar energy sector and is still operating in Sydney, Australia.  Dunlite wind generator owners are now relegated to a small fringe group who still swear by the durability and simplicity of their Dunlite models.  But the trend of harnessing the wind to produce energy is alive and well, and has turned into big business since the 1970’s. It would be hard to make a case that the Dunlite system or its competitors really inspired the growth of this industry, but it was certainly a notable precursor (it’s mentioned by Wikipedia after all) to the wind energy systems we see today.

It was interesting to see a company from the 1930’s touting the benefits of free, non fossil fuel based energy long before petroleum really hit it’s full stride and the problems of using oil were really understood.  It’s also interesting that the Whole Earth Catalog was published just prior the first notable energy crisis in 1973.  This time was considered a major turning point in renewable, wind powered technology, when a push began to develop wind farms that could feed into centralized energy grids. Today wind is second only to solar in the green energy spectrum and new potentials continue to be discovered.

I stumbled across a Ted Talks a couple weeks ago that discusses what might be the next generation of wind energy production, using the motion of giant kites to gather wind at higher altitudes.  Saul Griffith explains how the height of wind turbine towers and the diameter of the blades they support are both reaching their maximum size capacities.  His operating test system on Maui produces enough power for five households with a kite the size of a piano at 300 ft. He makes a convincing argument that the stronger predictable winds above 2,000 ft can be utilized by free flowing kites equal to the wingspan of a 747s, which would produce more energy than the largest 300 ft ground turbines.  Griffith proposes that a single factory, producing 100,000 “planes” per year (as they did during WWII) could provide all of America’s energy needs in just 10 years.  I have my doubts that this exact scenario will come to pass, but it’s a refreshingly hopeful vision of what we could do with some investment and will power.  We’ve been using wind power for thousands of years and it’s amazing to see continuing innovations in the evolution of its use.

http://www.pearen.ca/dunlite/Dunlite.htm

http://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_on_kites_as_the_future_of_renewable_energy.html