Sep 16 2014
Clean Green Energy LLC (CGE) said today the U.S. Patent Office has issued the company a patent that covers the WIND e20® vertical axis wind turbine. The patent for invention number 8,823,199 is for a fluid driven turbine that uses a rotor which rotates at an axis transverse to the fluid flow.
"The WIND e20® is the face of distributed wind power in the future," said Bryan Zaplitny, president and CEO of CGE.
Wind-powered electrical generators in current use commonly employ a horizontal-axis, propeller-like, wind turbine to capture power from air flowing parallel to the rotational axis of the turbine blades. However, as the wind direction changes, traditional turbines are disadvantaged because they must be mounted so they pivot on horizontally to face directly into the wind.
"Being able to produce power from any wind direction is an advantage WIND•e20 has over the traditional horizontal wind turbines you see in large wind farms," said Zaplitny.
Zaplitny is named as an inventor of the patent, along with Rupert de Salis, CGE's lead engineer. The company has three other patents pending on their proprietary 105-foot turbine. The patent application also lists thirteen other advantages of CGE's technology.
In 1931, GJM Darrieus disclosed a three-bladed wind turbine mounted on a vertical rotating shaft. Since that time, the Darrieus turbine has received substantial attention as an effective means of power generation and WIND e20 is the most advanced iteration yet designed.
Burtek Enterprises of Chesterfield, Michigan has been selected as the strategic manufacturing and assembly partner of the WIND e20® and is currently designing the assembly line to manufacture in quantity.