Innovation

Drive down the highway or look in parking lots and poles are everywhere, says Terry Sankar, an engineering doctoral candidate at Robert Morris University. Imagine each one as a little electrical power plant, quietly and unobtrusively spinning out clean energy from the wind.

Sankar’s Pittsburgh-based company, Sustainable Systems, has developed an innovative approach to harnessing wind power, a vertical axis windmill that touts low cost, increased safety and flexibility in size and use. Every Target, McDonalds, and Whole Foods could be energy independent through windmill technology, Sankar muses.

Most wind turbines are oriented on a horizontal axis, much like an airplane propeller. Sankar’s version is fixed up and down, similar to an ancient Persian design. It resembles a large egg beater and may be installed on existing poles, towers, rooftops, almost anywhere.

“It has become increasingly clear that wind holds the greatest potential for satisfying the region’s and nation’s need for clean and renewable energy,” notes Sankar’s advisor,  Zbigniew Czajkiewicz, an engineering professor who heads the University’s Center for Applied Research in Engineering and Science. “There is keen interest from the energy users we’ve talked with in regards to the development and commercial availability of such systems.”

Sankar has received a $25,000 University Innovation Grant from Ben Franklin Technology Partners to test and refine his designs. The system should be commercially available within two years. The company is currently installing a 60-foot prototype at Seven Springs Resort in southwestern Pennsylvania, the ideal testing ground, capable of generating 100kw of electricity.

Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: Michael Rick, Terry Sankar, Zbigniew Czajkiewicz, RMU, Sustainable Systems

Image courtesy of Robert Morris University