UK start-up Katrick Technologies has designed a panel system for harnessing wind power to produce sustainable energy.
The panels employ individually acting aerofoils to capture kinetic energy in a wider range of wind frequencies and speeds than traditional turbines and convert it to green electricity.
With the potential to generate 22,000kWh of electricity annually per panel, this innovation represents an exciting advancement for clean energy sources, claimed Katrick.
Katrick Technologies co-chief executive Vijay Madlani said: “Wind farms can be built on varying scales both on and offshore, but they are not without their limitations.
“They cannot be built in urban or residential areas and often require large amounts of land in remote locations, which must then be connected to the grid using transmission wires.
“This presents challenges in sourcing a location, as often, a wind farm is not the most profitable use of land, particularly as turbines require significant space.
“There are also concerns over the damage to the surrounding environment and ecosystems, as well as visual disturbance and noise pollution.”
Katrick Technologies has designed its wind panel system to maximise the amount of kinetic energy captured, while addressing the limitations of traditional turbines.
The panels contain multi-layered aerofoils, which oscillate independently as wind passes through the panels, creating pockets of energy.
The varying sizes of the aerofoils increases the surface area for harnessing kinetic energy, and this can then be converted into sustainable electricity.
Katrick’s panels’ smaller size makes them easier to build and install while maintaining a significant surface area within the working space, and also means that they can be fitted to existing buildings and structures, even within urban and residential environments.
The size of the panels and configuration of the aerofoils allows them to capture wind of all speeds and frequencies, including ground winds which are inaccessible to turbines.
Adding additional foils can also provide a superior surface area for wind capture than turbines, where the energy is concentrated on the alternator as a single focal point.
The panels are also straightforward to install – with a low initial cost and a smaller size, they can be easily implemented on any scale due to their modular design and rapid deployment, said Katrick.
They also require little maintenance compared with conventional wind turbines.