A Different Perspective

Smart technology should mimic nature, at least that’s the premise behind biomimetics, a field focused on learning from and incorporating the natural adaptive strategies used by plants or animals in engineering design. Perhaps I was lacking this perspective during my entry last week; "Hartford, CT Shows Litchfield County Unprogressives What it Means to Support Local Business" After reading the entry’s posted comments, some sincere sympathy for the local perspective and some good ol’ fashion 21st Century research on Google, I came to the conclusion that Goshen’s denial of Optiwind’s 300 series model was essentially about two things; design aesthetics and a general lack of confidence from the public in Connecticut’s inland wind energy resources. Hence, biomimetics, or rather “Whale Power”. When googling keywords “biomimetics” and “wind turbines”, I came across an article about a guy named Dr. Frank Fish (no this isn’t a joke). Apparently Dr. Fish was inspired by a sculpture he saw of a Humpback Whale. The result, he "bio-mimicked" the whale’s flipper in his wind turbine blade design which has scalloped edges helping it generate force in tightly banked turns. Check out www.whalepower.com

The Whale Power technology has tremendous potential to advance wind energy technology, especially in areas where wind resources are currently touted as being limited. But how is it that Blanford, MA, a town 40 miles north of Goshen, CT and at approximately the same elevation gets to erect and take advantage of the more majestic three blade turbine while Goshen is stuck with, well, a less than perfect alternative? The answer to this question I will seek to provide, but the take away here is that renewable wind energy technology in inland Connecticut is possible, it just takes a different perspective sometimes to help others see that there’s benefit in having more than one option; in this case Optiwind’s model vs. a traditional 3 blade turbine with Whale Power technology.