Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for the energy industry. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 4 promising Wind Turbine Design solutions.
Heat Map: 4 Top Wind Turbine Design Startups
For our 4 top picks, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 4 interesting examples out of 130 relevant solutions. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
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New World Wind – Biomimetic Wind Turbines
Startups in the renewable power industry are harnessing biomimicry principles to develop better designs for wind turbines that are silent, elegant, and can potentially operate in both urban and natural environments. French startup New World Wind develops Aeroleaf, a lightweight and almost always moving biomorphic micro-turbine, responding to the wind blowing from any direction. Their special design allows their wind trees, composed of Aeroleaf micro-turbines, to adapt to and exploit both the slightest of breezes and strong turbulent winds.
Saphon Energy – Bladeless Wind Turbines
Collisions of birds and bats with huge blades of conventional wind turbines result in injuries and even the death of these animals. Developing bladeless turbines solves this challenge and helps to tackle people’s resistance to wind power. Tunisian startup Saphon Energy is a CleanTech company that develops a zero blade wind converter. The design of this wind turbine is inspired by the sailboat as it does not rotate and follow but instead rocks back and forth. The benefits of this innovative design enable wind turbines to operate at a higher efficiency while causing minimal impact on local avifauna.
SeaTwirl – Floating Wind Turbines
Another example of innovation in wind turbine design is the floating wind turbine. This design has a tower connected to a sub-sea structure consisting of a floating element and a keel enabling wind farm installations further out at sea, where the winds are stronger. These turbines can anchor at greater depths than conventional wind turbines. Swedish startup SeaTwirl offers a floating vertical-axis wind turbine for sea installations. These turbines can anchor at a depth of more than the conventional limit of 50 meters. It is easy to maintain and has a low center of gravity enabling a lesser load of the bearings.
Vawt – Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
In order to increase efficiency and reduce the costs of generating wind power, companies across the world are developing turbines with a vertical axis design. Such a design allows for a lower center of gravity, reduced machine complexity, and better scalability. Polish startup Vawt develops a patent-pending vertical axis wind turbine suitable for large scale applications that are more than over 500kW. Their industrial-scale turbines are durable, reliable, and have higher efficiency compared to conventional horizontal axis turbines. Moreover, they cause lower noise pollution and are safer for birds.
What About The Other 126 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 4 startups showcased above are promising examples out of 130 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.
