British YouTuber Robert Murray-Smith has made the construction plans for a spherical turbine with omni-directional wind capture technology available on Thingiverse. The so-called O-Wind turbine from the start-up O Wind Energy is characterized by a spherical design that makes it possible to efficiently capture wind energy from all directions.
The design, which won the James Dyson Award in 2018, was created by Lancaster University students Nicholas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani. According to the developers, the O-Wind turbine is particularly suitable for urban use due to its ability to harness turbulent wind conditions in cities.
The functionality is based on a tetrahedron design with a triangular base, the sides of which consist of interlocking, asymmetrical triangles. The triangular layers contain wind tunnels which, thanks to their special shape, allow the turbine to rotate in a uniform direction.
In the meantime, the startup has made design changes in which the upper wind channels have been closed off. Nevertheless, the basic functionality of the omni-directional wind capture technology remains the same. However, the exact extent of the optimization is still unclear.
Robert Murray-Smith, who has presented various turbine designs in the past. He has also published the spherical turbine design for free on Thingiverse.
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