Wind Resource Assessment: Analysis of the Vortex Bladeless Characteristics in Puerto Cortés, Honduras

Abstract

In the department of Cortés, many cities such as San Pedro Sula and Choloma truly invest in auto consumption installations for the residential and commercial sector; however, Puerto Cortés being one of the most prominent cities in Honduras, currently lacks any incentive of interest from its residents or authorities to implement distributive generation of any kind. Under this criterion, it was sought to study a renewable alternative distinct from solar energy suitable for its implementation in Puerto Cortés; Vortex Bladeless being a new concept in wind energy technology. A technical analysis was performed for the Vortex NANO device in situ to develop projections for a Vortex Tacoma device under the same conditions. The electrical performance of the device, the behavior of the wind resource and the power coefficient (Cp) were determined; analysis and results are based of the collected date on the 3rd quarter of the year. A demand analysis (load profile) in the residential sector to determine the range covered with one (1) Vortex Tacoma device given its projections.

Assessment of Aerodynamic Plates Subjected to Von Kármán Vortex Street for Enhancing the Wind Energy Generation in Blade-Less Devices

“…Newton's Second Law dictates the dynamics of blade-less generators, as exemplified by Equation (11), which describes the dynamics of an aero generator from a rotational framework perspective. This equation involves several parameters, including I 0 as the inertia, C T as the damping coefficient, K T as the restoration coefficient, M (t) as the fluctuating external torque, and θ as the plate angular position.…”

“…Based on the above, Equations ( 12) and ( 13) provide an analytical solution to Equation (11) when the device operates at resonance. These two equations specify the angular displacement and rotational velocity of the device [38].…”

“…Moreover, Yáñez [3] introduced two commercial devices, the Vortex Nano and Vortex Tacoma, to the market. According to Ordoñez et al [11], Nano can generate 0.9 W of power when a prototype 0.85 m in height is 8 m above ground level, exposed to a wind speed of 6.5 m/s, while Tacoma can generate 110 W with a wind speed of 9 m/s. They [11] also projected that a generator with a height of 2.75 m could transform 30% of the wind energy into electrical work, representing an appropriate increment in conversion efficiency.…”