Re:Why Wind Turbines Have Three Blades
by olau on Friday May 06, 2016 @11:39AM
(#11644676)
I think the reason plainly is that they are not competitive, perhaps because their advantages aren't important enough disadvantages for horizontal axis turbines.
I think people tend to forget that the big wind turbine manufacturers today started out small, experimenting with various designs before they settled on the three-bladed model. At the moment there's a lot of accumulated research and infrastructure present that allows them to erect giant 3-6-8 MW turbines that can take the hammering of the weather for > 20 years. Competing against this is really, really hard, you really have to a big advantage in your favor and perhaps also decades of research and development.
Wikipedia has a short section:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine#Dis...
I think people tend to forget that the big wind turbine manufacturers today started out small, experimenting with various designs before they settled on the three-bladed model. At the moment there's a lot of accumulated research and infrastructure present that allows them to erect giant 3-6-8 MW turbines that can take the hammering of the weather for > 20 years. Competing against this is really, really hard, you really have to a big advantage in your favor and perhaps also decades of research and development.