Vertical Wind Turbines
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The more common type of wind turbines built across the world is the horizontal wind turbine.
This horizontal turbine has a large shaft with the propellers based on top, compared with the vertical wind turbines design.
These vertical wind turbine designs are less common and you may not have seen them before. The main difference between the horizontal and vertical designs is the rotation of the blades.
In the more common horizontal form, the blades are on the top, spinning round in the air. The vertical design has the generator positioned at the base of the tower, and has the blades wrapped around the shaft.
Below is an example of the horizontal the horizontal turbine design used widely across the world in wind farm developments.
So here you can see that the horizontal turbine spins round in a propeller type motion, which is different to the vertical wind turbine design, which spins round in a circle in a cylinder type design.
The disadvantage of the vertical turbines are they require guide ropes to hold the shaft in place.
This requires more land space as the ropes need to be run from the tip of the shaft, and need to clear the blades.
On the other hand, the vertical construction is quieter than the horizontal design.
The disadvantage of the horizontal method, explained above, is the noise created by the blades, yet the advantage is that the shaft can support the propeller at the tip and there is no need to install guide ropes.
One of the main reason why developers prefer the horizontal axis design is due to land space.
Due to the relatively high initial cost of natural energy technologies, developers would opt for the horizontal wind turbine design to keep costs down.
Some modern vertical designs however, do not require guide ropes, and there is a growing market for home, vertical axis wind turbines.
Many people are investing in home wind turbines in order to generate a source of clean power.
Wind turbines can also work great as an addition to a solar panel system.
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