Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

With horizontal turbines, maintenance tends to be costly because of the wear on the bearings and gearboxes. Also, the Yaw and Pitch mechanisms, which allow the blades to rotate and give an 'angle of attack' on the wind, all use a proportion of the wind energy, reducing the overall efficiency. Traditionally, this has resulted in smaller scale horizontal turbines producing less yield – and therefore is less desirable.

Often, vertical turbines are overlooked when research is commissioned into small wind turbines due to excessive bearing wear which does not occur when utilising the Maglev bearing. It is important to understand the different advantages between the models, which usually dismisses many sites that can benefit from a vertical axis turbine.

However, things have moved on with our Maglev Bearings and contemporary blade designs. Vertical turbines have little efficiency loss in cross or gusty winds, and don't require installation at great heights with an average installation being below 15m.

Additional benefits include:

• Less turbulence, allowing vertical turbines to be frequently placed in smaller areas.
• They can be located nearer the ground, making it easier to maintain the moving parts.
• Only one moving part.
• Lower start-up speeds to horizontal turbines.
• They can be installed at locations where taller structures are prohibited.
• Vertical Turbines have a lower noise production.
• Birds and animals see the vertical turbine as a solid object thereby eliminating 'bird strike'.

Each of our turbines comes with a 10-year warranty and a minimum of 20-years product life expectancy. This far-outlasts the warranty on most small wind turbines, which also often require a yearly maintenance fee.