Vortex Bladeless

Vortex Bladeless is a wind power technology developed by the Spanish startup Vortex Bladeless Ltd., founded in 2014 in Madrid and Avila by David Yáñez, David Suriol and Raúl Martin, that generates electricity with no rotating blades at all. The device is a semi-rigid, tapered mast built from fiberglass and carbon fiber and anchored to the ground, which oscillates back and forth as wind passing over it sheds a repeating pattern of vortices, a phenomenon called vortex shedding, the same effect that makes an aeolian harp sing. A carbon fiber rod at the base of the mast drives a linear alternator fitted with neodymium magnets and a patented magnetic repulsion tuning system, converting the mast oscillation directly into electricity without a gearbox, spinning blades or lubricated moving parts in contact with each other. The company presents the technology as suited to low power, off grid and distributed generation settings, including installations too small or too close to other structures for a conventional bladed turbine, rather than as a replacement for utility scale wind power.