WindCube (Second Life)

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neotoy

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Published on June 6, 2009 3:16:06 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPbtIas3lKA

Duration: 2:00

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If you're interested in the details (inspiration) for this project, visit: http://www.getsmartenergy.com/ and watch the informative, if somewhat corny infomercial.

Basically this is a working virtual model of Green Energy Technologie's WindCube - "A unique wind turbine designed specifically for commercial and industrial power users located in urban and suburban settings."

Essentially this is a brilliant new type of wind power system that utilizes a passive "shroud" ie. concentrator to channel and intensify wind energy into a small turbine. The genius of this design is obvious; it actually takes less energy to produce and is apparently 8X more effective overall!

Most people aren't aware of this, but wind power in its current form is not sustainable. The lifetime cost of production and maintenance of full sized wind turbines, which can cost in excess of a billion dollars just to produce, is actually far more than the energy savings they will generate before they need to be decomissioned.

However, utilizing a passive shroud as is shown in this design it actually becomes economical. What an elegant solution! I was so impressed with this new innovation in wind power technology that I decided to build a working model in Second Life.

I wrote all the scripts that make it work, and built all the components. It works like this: In Second Life there is a virtual weather system that includes wind. There is a scripting command that lets you call the wind velocity and direction.

Every 15 seconds my WindCube takes this information and uses it to determine which direction it should face to collect the most wind. Once it is facing the prevailing wind, the small turbine begins to spin (its RPM is also determined by the wind velocity).

This generates virtual electricity in the attached nacelle, sending power down to the power meter, which accurately measures the kWh generated. This energy is then exported to the nearby platform to be used by several small buildings!

Build time was about 3 hours total.