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Wind Power by Wind Tower

VENTURETEC is a global acting consulting and service company for small and medium-sized businesses. Apart from the industrial sectors medical technology, security and industry automation, VENTURETEC is concentrating mainly in the field of environmental technology including renewables. The main activities for these areas are the market introduction of future development of technology and the extension of the current systems. Moreover, VENTURETEC operates as a commercial agency for high-tech products and supports companies in procuring capital. At the moment, VENTURETEC is taking part in the development of an innovative wind power station which is called Wind Tower. The system brings an extremely high efficiency already at low wind speeds which will lead to great potential for the onshore markets.

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Vgl. Pullen et al. (2009), S. 10. Vgl. VDMA Power Systems Bundesverband Windenergie (Hrsg.) (2009), S. 7.

Wind Industry

Viewed worldwide, the wind industry is one of the fastest growing branches of the economy. Statistical surveys of this industry confirm that since the year 2000, its global sales have increased at an average of 30 percent per year1. It is thought that this economic trend will not be greatly affected in the year 2009 by the current financial crisis. Forecasts of the German Wind Energy Institute (DEWI) predict a continuous annual growth of 20 percent by the year 2015. These estimates are mainly supported by the general political effort protecting the climate. A decision from the European Union (EU) provides an EU-wide binding target of a 20 percent share in energy supply (electricity, heat, traffic) for renewables by 20202.

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Wind Industry
rests are geared to reducing costs, increasing plant availability and improving the environmental performance. Moreover, the increasingly powerful plants maximize the general network conditions. The basic advantages of wind energy are obvious. During operation, the plants are not wasting any fossil fuels and are not emitting climatedamaging gases. Beyond that, the input energy for the production of a plant lasts on average of three to six months and the economic benefits are also obvious. The rural areas of Germany are benefiting especially from the reduction of the raw material imports eradicating the extra outside costs and creating new jobs. As well as the considerable advantages of this innovative techno-

Comparsion between the Wind Tower and Horizontal Axis Plants

These days, modern wind turbines use lifting forces instead of resistant forces. The passing wind

generates a lift at the wings which rotates the plant. In years to come, the industrys main research inte-

Concept design of the Wind Tower (Graphic: red-light-design)

Wind Industry
modular construction, the low weight, the easy transportation and the easy installation bring very low costs and at the same time, the Wind Tower features a number of positive soft factors such as very low noise emission and hardly any visible movement. After a successful testing, the project team wants to reach serial production in two years at the latest and, ties with universities, engineering offices and production plants have been established. Moreover, we invite interested partners and investors to contact VENTURETEC.

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Literature
Wind tunnel measurements with a Wind Tower Module (Graphic: red-light-design)

logy, there is still great scope for improvement. First and foremost, the installation of wind wheels leads to massivee landscape changes. The people living nearby are also disturbed by the shadow cast and acoustic emission of the rotating plants, extra problems arise from the general effects of wind, which blows internmittently and cannot be stored. It is impossible to make an exact prediction of the wind forces and corresponding amounts of energy and neither is it possible to store the kinetic energy of the wind and convert it into electric current at a later time. At present, wind energy could be better used if the wind would blow with a constant strength over longer periods of time. It is an extremely complex task to align the temporary consumption peaks with electricity from wind turbines and other sources of energy are currently indispensable3. A current debate between wind park operators and the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) highlights one of the unexpected problems of the industry. Points of contention are the so-called
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Vgl. Wiegand (2009)

Radar Shadows, which emerge from rotating wings of closely together standing wind turbines. The Bundeswehr argues that the shadows prohibit the detection of oncoming planes and therefore many wind park projects are blocked. VENTURETEC is a technology consultancy situated in the metropolitan area of Munich/Germany. At the moment, VENTURETEC is developing along with several partners, an innovative wind power station. The required patents have been applied and are awaiting grants. The project called Wind Tower is dealing with a special construction for an optimized wind feeding for vertical axis plants. As well as a higher efficiency, the system offers the advantage that it produces energy already at very low wind speeds and this is confirmed by measurements in the wind tunnel. VENTURETEC estimates a steady energy production of up to the time period of 85 percent within one year in onshore regions. These areas are very often difficult to develop but due to the high efficiency of the plant, fast progress can be made. Also, the

Pullen, Angelika; Qiao, Liming; Sawyer, Steve (2009): Global Wind 2008 Report, Brssel (Global Wind Energy Council), 2009. VDMA Power Systems Bundesverband Windenergie (Hrsg.) (2009): Wachstumsbranche Windindustrie, in: Die Windindustrie in Deutschland Wirtschaftsreport 2009, 2009, S. 6-7. Wiegand, Ralf (2009): Kampf gegen Windmhlen, in Sddeutsche Zeitung, Ausgabe 15.09.2009.

Author: Dipl.-Kfm. (Univ.) Ville Dollhofer

venturetec GmbH & Co. KG

Am Fuchsbogen 7 82256 Frstenfeldbruck Germany Phone: +49 (0)8141/82960-10/14 Fax : +49 (0)8141/82960-40/44 E-Mail: vdollhofer@venturetec.de www.venturetec.de