Sign in Subscribe

Bladeless Wind Generators

A Spanish company is developing wind generators that exploit the vortex-shedding effect. The tapered towers have no rotating parts.

SL Staff C

• 2 min read
Tapered white cylindrical object 8 metres tall, in front of workers and truck, background of treeless plain and distant hills
Vortex Bladeless Atlantis model wind generator. (Photo courtesy of Vortex Bladeless S.L.)

Many years ago, we were living in a new partially-built suburb in a large city on the Canadian Prairies, where we waited at the local bus stop in the winter. The unimpeded strong winds were cold enough to freeze the marrow, but on some days, the tedium was relieved by an unintended physics demonstration.

When the wind was from the right direction and strength, the bus stop sign pole would oscillate rapidly and continuously, moving several centimetres at the top. It was a phenomenon known as vortex shedding.

A fluid moving past a non-streamlined object will form circular eddies (vortices) downstream. These vortices induce a low pressure on the object but they also detach or shed, then a new one forms in the opposite direction, and does the same thing. For any given object this vortex-shedding is regular and continuous at a specific wind speed. All objects, depending on their shape and stiffness of the material they are made from, naturally vibrate at a particular frequency, which is called the resonant frequency (think of a tuning fork or a plucked string). If the object is not mounted sufficiently rigidly and its resonant frequency matches the vortex-shedding frequency, the object will move in harmonic resonance.

0:00
/0:14

Vortices being shed from an object with circular cross-section. (With permission from Vortex Bladeless S.L.)

One group of engineers in Spain realized they could take advantage of the principle to build a structure without any rotating parts that would generate power from the wind.

Vortex Bladeless1 has developed tall, tapered cylindrical towers (which have a somewhat phallic appearance, unfortunately) that oscillate in the wind. A copper coil, connected to the tower, is mounted inside of a stationary annular permanent magnet. The horizontal movement of the tower and coil generates an electrical current. The range of suitable resonant wind speeds is increased by tapering the tower to match wind profiles (wind is stronger higher up), and by the resistance of the coil-magnet set-up, which changes the effective stiffness.

Schematic representation of bladeless wind generator showing tall mast, internal core rod and alternator system, and fixed base and anchor
Schematic representation of Vortex Bladeless wind generator. (With permission from Vortex Bladeless S.L.)
The product is still under development so hard numbers on efficiency and performance are not available, but it may offer a number of potential advantages over horizontal axis wind turbines.

These include no rotating parts for less maintenance, no need for directional or speed control, less land area taken up, no risk to birds, less noise, and likely cheaper to build and operate. Drawbacks include a narrower range of wind speeds it can exploit.

This is a technology worth watching.

Oh, and that bus stop sign? The energy from its vibration was entirely absorbed by the steel of the pole at its base, and it broke from fatigue failure within a year.

⚡️

Sweet Lightning has no affiliation with any products or manufacturers mentioned in this article.

Reading

  1. Vortex Bladeless. “Vortex Bladeless | Innovative Wind Power.” Accessed July 3, 2025. https://vortexbladeless.com/.

Sign up for more like this.

Enter your email
Subscribe