Quietrevolution wind turbine at the London Olympic Stadium

Quietrevolution (often stylized with lower-case "q": quietrevolution) is a brand of

vertical-axis wind turbine A vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) is a type of wind turbine where the main rotor shaft is set transverse to the wind while the main components are located at the base of the turbine. This arrangement allows the generator and gearbox to be ...

s owned since 2014 by Darrieus Ltd previously VWT Power Ltd in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Quietrevolution's helical designs are related to the Gorlov turbine, which evolved from the

Darrieus wind turbine The Darrieus wind turbine is a type of vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) used to generate electricity from wind energy. The turbine consists of a number of curved aerofoil blades mounted on a rotating shaft or framework. The curvature of the bla ...

. Quietrevolution's qr5 model won several awards, including ''Building'' magazine's 2006 Sustainable Innovation Award. However, the qr5 did not perform well enough to ensure the original company's success, and it went into administration in 2014. The company and its

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

were taken over later in 2014 by Darrieus Limited previously VWT Power Limited, which now offers an improved qr6 model. Both models consist of three vertical

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

blades, each having a helical twist of 120 degrees. This feature spreads the

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

evenly over the entire revolution, thus preventing the destructive pulsations of the straight-bladed giromill (Darrieus turbine). The wind pushes each blade around on both the windward and

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

sides of the turbine. The qr5 turbine, rated for 6.5 kW, measures in diameter and high. The qr6 is similar: 3.1 m wide and tall and is rated 7.5 kW. Seven qr5 turbines were erected in 2012 at the

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

in London in a failed attempt to generate on site 20% of the park's post-games energy requirements however there was insufficient wind resource. The turbines' usefulness was questioned: they were possibly net consumers of energy. A public relations setback for the qr5 and original company was the poor performance of the turbine installed at Welsh government offices in

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

. The company blamed poor siting for the £48,000 turbine's generation of a monthly average of £5.28 worth of electricity (33

kWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common b ...

) in 2012.

References

External links

Quietrevolution
Wind turbines Companies based in Cambridgeshire British brands {{windpower-stub

See also

References

External links