Vertical turbine promises wind power for Virginia

A Charlottesville company and researchers at the University of Virginia are designing a new turbine that they anticipate will be capable of harnessing wind power across Virginia.

The prototype wind turbine - which has been dubbed the Blade Runner 5000 - is designed to be different from traditional wind turbines in that it will be smaller, cheaper and more efficient.

The most noticeable difference, however, is that the turbine’s blades rotate on a vertical axis, rather than the typical horizontal axis.

“The idea is that this could power a farm or maybe half a dozen homes,“ said Paul Allaire, a professor of mechanical engineering at UVa and chief of the university’s newly formed Jefferson Wind Energy Institute.

The institute is working in conjunction with the Charlottesville-based Central Virginia Wind Energy & Manufacturing to build a 9-foot-tall scale prototype turbine, which resided Monday afternoon in a wind tunnel in UVa’s Aerospace Research Laboratory.

The final version is expected to stand 150 feet tall, measure 15 feet in diameter and cost an estimated $150,000.

It will no more obtrusive than the average cell phone tower, said Jason Ivey of Central Virginia Wind Energy & Manufacturing.

“This looks like a cell tower,“ Ivey said. “Where do we have cell towers? Everywhere we go.“

Ivey is seeking venture capital and various grants to move the project forward. If all goes as planned, he said, the turbines will be up and running by the first quarter of 2011.

Ivey said he intends to tap Virginia companies to handle the manufacturing and assembling of the turbines as much as possible.

“We want these turbines to be made by Virginians in the state of Virginia,“ he said.

Traditional large-scale offshore wind turbines typically generate 3 megawatts of electricity, cost roughly $3 million a piece and are designed for wind speeds of 30 mph or so.

The UVa project’s wind turbine, however, is designed to generate 50 kilowatts of power and is meant to harness the more moderate winds of places such as Virginia, where wind more often blows at around 15 mph.

Allaire and Ivey presented the prototype wind turbine on Monday to several elected officials, including Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle; Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville; Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris; and U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy.

Perriello praised the project for creating green jobs while also encouraging the country’s use of clean and renewable energy.

“It’s totally fitting that Jefferson’s university should be right at the forefront of the independence struggle of our era, and that’s energy independence.“