WIND TURBINE HAVING AIRFOILS FOR BLOCKING AND DIRECTING WIND AND ROTORS WITH OR WITHOUT A CENTRAL GAP

摘要

A wind turbine device (100) of increased efficiency is comprised of a set of fixed airfoils (104, 106) that direct wind into a rotor (102) having a plurality of blades (120, 122). The fixed airfoils may extend to the ground to increase the amount of wind directed into the rotor and may be manufactured from concrete. The rotor blades have a vented portion (114) near the axis of rotation that has been found to increase efficiency for certain blade geometries. For other blade geometries, increased efficiency is observed with no gap at the axis of rotation. The rotor may also be manufactured from composite materials to increase strength while decreasing the moment of inertia for the rotor.