When it comes to wind turbines, the promise is all too clear. However, the SeaFlute turbine from Vancouver, Canada, comes in singing with potential, quite literally too. Designed by Aziz Khalili and his family, the SeaFlute is a work of innovative art going beyond what is on offer in terms of traditional turbines. Khalili, in fact, looked at traditional turbines and stated that there had to be a better way to generate wind energy, and in the process created the SeaFlute that never spins or shouts, but sings. This unconventional turbine is said to produce a strange effect that sets it apart from other conventional turbines.
The Khalili family draws inspiration from physics for the SeaFlute
Being shaped like a champagne bottle, it’s hard to understand that Khalili and his family looked to science to establish SeaFlute, which is unlike any other wind turbine. It is equally important to establish that SeaFlute has no moving parts and is built on electromagnetism and electrostatics. The Direct Wind to Electricity Generator (D-WEG) turns wind energy into electricity by pulling wind through the narrow opening in what is called theBernoullii effect.
With wind rushing through the SeaFlute’s neck, it tends to pass through an Electrostatic Ion Generator that steals electrons from the air molecules, forming an electron cloud. With the charged stream, electromagnetic induction takes over to generate a steady direct current (DC). Operating silently, the SeaFlute rather sophisticatedly transforms wind into energy.
Looking at SeaFlute in practicality, it produces 1,200 MWh yearly per unit and is capable of powering about 120 homes. However, the Khalili family designed the SeaFlute not for functionality, but for something else.
A 2018 project that dazzled the world and became part of history
Before getting into the strange effect of the SeaFlute, the project first made its debut in 2018 after Khalili and his family submitted the idea and results to the 2018 Land Art Generator competition for Melbourne. To date, no prototypes have been built, nor have field tests been conducted. BETTER, the Khalili family’s firm, seems to suggest that the product is still being tested all these years later.
With the SeaFlute drawing on the Bernoulli effect, which is the same physics that is used to make airplanes fly, it seems rather uncanny that the idea has not moved forward 7 years later. Whether setbacks include the cost to produce the SeaFlute or whether the lack of institutional backing is the root of the problem, we have yet to see what the future holds for the SeaFlute.
Understanding the strange effect that goes against the norm
What created all the more interest was the fact that SeaFlute could produce programmable musical tones. The SeaFlute, as the name suggests, drew inspiration from the pan flute and incorporated 14 differently sized units which could turn into musical notes. Due to a centralized system controlling airflow through each module, opening and closing air chambers led to harmonized melodies being played. Strangely, the SeaFlute enables duality and a whole new source of energy. With the system behaving much like a musical instrument, the SeaFlute is the future of wind energy that promises to be safer (amounting to no bird deaths) and admirable due to the music that is played when the SeaFlute is at work.
Singing with possibility, SeaFlute offers an ambitious future
By merely eliminating all moving parts, the SeaFlute is an eclectic mix of art and engineering that, if it gets executed, has the promise to produce energy and music. Thus far, the SeaFlute remains a prospect hanging in limbo, and SeaFlute will remain somewhat of a paradox until it becomes more than a mere concept.
Our imagination is surely captured by the SeaFlute that sings on with promise for the future and a potential 1,200 MWh on offer.
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