Increase Stability of Wind Turbines

Vertical axis wind turbine generator with improved torque and noise performance compared to traditional vertical axis wind turbines. The generator has a vertical rotor shaft and multiple blades attached. The blades are divided into fixed and movable sections. The movable sections can close or open a central wind hole in the fixed sections. This allows optimizing blade pressure and torque. When backwind blows, the movable sections close the wind hole to maximize pressure. When headwind blows, they open the wind hole to minimize pressure. This reduces counter-torque from wind forces and noise compared to traditional vertical axis wind turbines.

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Additively manufacturing wind turbine towers that are optimized for the prevailing wind direction at the turbine site. The method involves using 3D printing to create non-symmetrical tower shapes tailored to the local wind conditions. By determining the dominant wind direction, an optimized tower shape is created with thicker sections aligned in that direction. The tower is then 3D printed at the turbine site using cementitious materials, allowing for customized, on-site production of optimized tower shapes that better support the turbine against wind loads.

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Vertical axis multi-stage wind turbine generator with reduced counter-torque wind pressure and improved stability for high wind speeds. The turbine has multiple stages of rotor blades mounted vertically between conical guide plates. Each rotor blade has a ball-netted wind hole that can open or close depending on wind direction. When the blade is accelerating into the wind, the hole opens to increase blade speed. When the blade is decelerating, the hole closes. This allows higher blade speeds and reduces counter-torque force compared to fixed wind holes. The turbine also has reinforcing poles between the guide plates to withstand high winds.

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Protecting wind turbine generators from mechanical damage during heavy loads by preventing rotor-stator contact. The method involves adding a sliding pad connected to the stator. If the rotor tilts past a critical angle due to gravity forces, it contacts the sliding pad instead of the stator, preventing damage. The sliding pad provides a controlled contact point to avoid direct rotor-stator contact when the rotor tilts excessively under heavy loads.

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Vertical axis wind turbine with a rotor shaft that connects directly between the upper and lower generators without bearings. The rotor has blades with vertical sections and curved tips that attach to fixtures on the shaft. The turbine has a frame with horizontal stages and inner frames. The upper and lower generators are mounted in the center of each stage. The rotor shaft connects vertically between the generator shaft ends without bearings. This allows the shaft to move cooperatively and reduce torsion and vibration as it rotates.

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A direct-drive wind turbine design that reduces the air gap between the stator and rotor without increasing weight or cost. The turbine has a radial elastic fixing mechanism that maintains precise air gap control. The hub and frame have concentric guiding rails/wheels/bearings that rotate together. Elastic fixing elements compress the rails/wheels radially against each other. This allows radial movement while preventing axial and tangential misalignment. This provides stable air gap control without needing heavy bearings or complex systems. The elastic fixings can be separate carriages or sliding surfaces. The turbine also has options like rails/wheels or slide bearings, and internal space housing.

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A wind turbine drivetrain assembly that prevents axial displacement of the bearing without using rings that are difficult to install. The assembly has the bearing, rotor shaft, and a component like a gearbox with opposed annular faces. Bolts are inserted through tapped holes in the faces to connect them. The bolt heads contact the opposing face. This creates a bridge of bolts that prevents axial movement. The bolts can be tightened after assembly to compress the faces together. This allows easier assembly compared to tight fitting rings or threaded shafts.

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Tower structure for wind turbines that enables taller towers with reduced transportation limitations. The tower is made of stacked sections with additively manufactured sections. Each section has printed concrete layers forming the wall element. A base holds the printed layers. The sections have lift connections for stacking. This allows additive manufacturing of the tower sections on site instead of transporting prefabricated sections. The additively manufactured sections can be taller than transportation limits due to their on-site assembly.

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A transverse flow wind turbine design with twin vertical-axis turbines connected to a generator. The turbines rotate about parallel, inclined axes instead of vertical axes. This eliminates the need for a central shaft and reduces vibrations. The blades have a unique shape with an equatorial section where the radius is maximum. The turbines are spaced apart during rotation to prevent blade collisions. The turbines are mounted on arms extending from a central mast. This allows the mast to act as a wind shield and direct airflow to the turbines. The nacelle can rotate to position the turbines downstream of the mast.

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Additively manufacturing wind turbine towers on-site using automated 3D printing devices suspended from an extendable vertical support structure. The printers are mounted above the tower foundation and can print the tower layers by selectively depositing cementitious material. The vertical support structure allows tall towers to be built without size limitations for transportation. The printers also have features like adhesive application, reinforcement bar insertion, and smoothing to improve tower quality.

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Using additive manufacturing techniques like 3D printing to create wind turbine towers with features that prevent vortex shedding, excitation, and drag. The towers are printed layer by layer using cementitious materials. Additional airflow modifying features are printed on the outer surface of the tower to reduce vortex shedding and drag. This prevents resonance and oscillations when wind flows over the tower. The printing process allows customized tower shapes and features to be precisely designed and added.

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Wind turbine design with improved tower-mounted damping system to reduce tower vibrations. The damping system uses a slosh damper module inside the tower. The damper module frame slides horizontally between fixed plates on the tower inner wall. This allows the module to move with tower vibrations. The frame ends are fixed to the plates while the middle sections slide. This prevents excessive force on the frame ends during installation. The sliding restriction is a bracket attached to the plate. This allows initial installation of the fixed ends, then attaching the bracket to secure the sliding middle sections.

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Nacelle cover for wind turbine generators that provides improved strength and maintenance accessibility compared to conventional nacelle covers. The cover has a modular design with detachable plates and beams that allows easier assembly and disassembly compared to welded sheet metal covers. The cover has an inner chamber with removable fasteners connecting the plates to the beams outside the chamber. This allows the plates to be removed without accessing the inner chamber, reducing maintenance time and risks. The beams also have removable positioning portions for the fasteners. The cover also has adaptors and trusses connecting the plates and beams to platforms inside and outside the chamber. This provides additional mounting points and adjustability for components.

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Control method for wind turbines configured as virtual synchronous machines (VSMs) to improve grid stability and reduce mechanical loads after faults. The method involves controlling the wind turbine's power output based on the synchronous machine angle, using high-pass filtered rotational speed to determine damping power. It also uses comparisons of DC link voltage and grid power to determine chopper power. This allows the wind turbine to provide grid-forming properties similar to a synchronous generator while avoiding power oscillations and excessive mechanical loads after faults.

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Wind turbine lightning protection system that reduces damage to bearings by providing an alternate lightning current path around the bearings. The system uses a shroud that surrounds the front end of the main shaft and makes contact with the hub and/or shaft. This shroud provides a short circuit path for lightning currents to flow from the hub/shaft to the bearing housing and ground, bypassing the bearings. This reduces the current through the bearings and prevents damage when the turbine is struck by lightning.

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System for measuring blade root loads in wind turbines without physical contact. It uses contactless sensors fixed to the hub to detect displacements of reference planes on the blades as they move. This allows estimating blade root loads without intrusive sensors. The hub-mounted sensors detect blade-relative displacements of the fixed reference planes. A controller processes the sensor data to determine blade root bending moments. This enables real-time load monitoring and control to optimize blade loads and pitch angles.

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Preventing failure of pitch bearings in wind turbine rotor blades due to lack of lubrication. A sensor in the pitch bearing measures vibration, noise, and temperature changes. When the sensor signal indicates weak lubrication, the blade pitch is adjusted to prevent bearing failure. This prevents stand still marks, false brinelling, and fretting corrosion on the bearing raceway. The pitch is changed to move the load and allow lubricant to reach the contact surface. The sensor signal is compared to initial levels/patterns to determine when pitching is needed.

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Vertical axis wind turbine design that reduces fatigue in the main shaft compared to conventional vertical axis turbines. The turbine has a vertical shaft with horizontal arms extending out at equal intervals. Wings are attached to the arm tips and extend up/down. The wings have uniform cross sections and lengths around the circumference. This projection onto a virtual circular ring around the shaft reduces shaft torque fluctuations compared to wing configurations with gaps.

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Fatigue resistant foundation design for wind turbines that reduces concrete, rebar, and construction time compared to conventional gravity foundations. The design uses a central vertical pedestal, radial ribs, and a continuous horizontal bottom slab cast in place. The ribs and slab have prestressed and post-tensioned concrete to distribute loads and reduce stresses. This allows thinner concrete sections and fewer pours compared to massive gravity foundations. The foundation also uses prefabricated ribs and slab edges for faster construction. The design aims to improve fatigue resistance, stiffness, and heat dissipation while reducing concrete usage and construction time for wind turbine foundations.

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Segmented wind turbine generator design with reinforcement to enable easier assembly of modular generator sections. The segments have reinforcement inserts at the interface areas between sections to stiffen those areas compared to the central connection area. This prevents deformation and misalignment during assembly and transport of the segmented generator. The reinforcement can be rings, webs, or other structures added to the magnet carrier segment at the separation interfaces. The reinforcement has higher stiffness than the central connection area.

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Slide bearing design for wind turbine rotor hubs that maximizes surface contact between the bearing faces to reduce wear and maintain reliability under load. The bearing has two axially spaced bearing halves with non-parallel faces. The inner face is continuous, while the outer face has separate pads. Each pad is attached to a separate mounting bracket that allows the pad to move relative to the outer bearing element. This provides resilient movement in both radial and axial directions. By allowing pad mobility, it maintains surface contact and load distribution when the rotor hub tilts due to wind or loads.

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Wind turbine design to mitigate resonant vibrations and noise. The wind turbine has a vibration source, like a generator or gearbox, and a component, like a tower or blade, that can resonate at a frequency. To prevent resonant amplification, a resonator module is added to the component at a quarter-length point along its resonant wavelength. This allows the resonator to vibrate at the component's resonant frequency, cancelling out some of the component's vibrations.

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A wind turbine rotor bearing housing design that allows reliable support of the rotor and transmission of forces into the tower while minimizing the load on the tower base. The housing has a long bearing body extending along the rotor shaft axis. The rotor bearings are placed in receptacles at opposite ends of the body, one facing the rotor and the other facing away. The receptacle facing the rotor is positioned outside the tower base to allow a wide load transmission span. The receptacle facing away has a different angle to distribute forces differently. This configuration allows the bearings to be placed further apart than the tower diameter. The housing surrounds the shaft between the bearings.

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A transmission gearing for wind turbines and electric vehicles that is lighter than conventional planetary gears, more robust to shock and impact loads, and has fewer components. The gearing replaces some of the heavy planetary pinions with drive belts. The belts connect the planetary shafts to high-speed shafts instead of using more pinions. This reduces weight and simplifies the gearing. The belts also absorb and dampen shock forces.

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Mastless vertical axis wind turbine without a central mast that generates energy by rotating conical sails under tension from a bottom platform and a top attachment. The conical shape increases stability in high winds. The sails rotate about a vertical axis under wind force. The bottom is tethered to a platform that rotates with the sails. The top is attached to a stationary frame that stays fixed. This allows the sails to rotate while the frame stays stationary. Stationary sails outside the rotation range redirect airflow to increase swept area. The mastless design eliminates the need for a central mast.

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Spreader box for securely mounting wind turbine towers to pedestals without increasing tower diameter. The spreader box has a hollow shape with through-holes for receiving the embedded pedestal bolts. The box is placed on the pedestal and filled with grout. The tower flange goes on the box, aligning with the through-holes. Grout fills the box. The pedestal bolts are tightened to secure the tower. The spreader box distributes forces and allows larger towers on smaller foundations.

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A hybrid turbine that combines features of both action and reaction turbines to improve performance and robustness. The hybrid turbine has a unique flow path through the impeller that is partly radial, partly axial, and partly tangential. This mixed flow path allows the turbine to operate as an action turbine at low flow rates and as a reaction turbine at high flow rates. The mixed flow path also enables higher wind speeds and reduces risk of blade failure compared to traditional wind turbines. The hybrid turbine is suitable for omnidirectional flow applications as well as one-way flow applications.

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A wind generator with improved efficiency and durability compared to traditional horizontal axis wind turbines. The design uses a vertical mast with a rotating frame, elliptical base, and radially fixed blades. The blades are mounted on carriages that roll on the elliptical base. This allows the blades to change angle as the frame rotates. The elliptical shape reduces drag and allows the blades to sweep more area. The rotating frame and base also stabilize the flow around the blades. The vertical orientation reduces noise and vibration. The modular frame and base sections can be scaled up or down.

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Protecting cable bundles and spacers in wind turbines to prevent excess forces and failures during yawing and high winds. The method involves installing cable spacers flush or above the yaw deck toe plate opening so the cables can't gain excess momentum when the turbine yaws. This prevents forces from being transmitted to the deck and sway ring locations that can cause failures. The spacers restrict cable movement and prevent excess forces that can induce cable failures and turbine downtime.

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A method for extending and reinforcing foundations, especially for repowering of wind turbines, that reduces cost and time compared to conventional methods. The method involves building new smaller peripheral foundations around the existing foundation, dismantling the old structure, and then assembling precast concrete beams on the peripheral foundations and bonding them to the existing foundation in the central area. This creates a new, stronger foundation using the existing one as ballast.

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Helical strake set for reducing vortex-induced vibrations of tall structures like wind turbine towers. The strake segments are designed for transport in containers and then assembled on the tower. Each segment has a hollow pyramid shape with wide and narrow ends. The narrow end attaches to the tower and has a through hole. This allows stacking the segments inside containers, reducing volume compared to solid foam strakes. The hollow segments also reduce weight for easier handling. The pyramid shape provides streamlining to reduce vortex shedding.

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A wind turbine blade bearing design to increase load capacity while allowing smaller flange diameters. The bearing has two flange connections, one on the hub side and one on the blade side. The blade side flange extends further than the hub side flange, creating a larger contact area on the blade side. This provides a stiffer connection to counteract crimping forces from offset loads.

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Wind turbine rotor design for cross-flow applications that improves efficiency and reduces vibrations compared to conventional Savonius-style turbines. The rotor has primary blades around a central axis and secondary blades positioned between the primary blades. The secondary blades are smaller than the primary blades. This configuration allows the secondary blades to capture additional wind energy and redirect it into the primary blades, enhancing overall performance. It also concentrates the force of the wind on the primary blades, reducing return drag and vibrations compared to having more primary blades.

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Retrofitting existing wind turbine foundations to allow replacing older turbines with newer, larger models without needing new foundations. The retrofit involves adding a perimetral structure around the outer edge of the base that connects to the existing pedestal using lever arms. The perimetral structure provides additional strength and reinforcement to handle the increased loads of modern turbines. It encloses the existing pedestal like a cage to redistribute forces. This allows using the existing base and pedestal with the retrofit to support new taller and heavier turbines.

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Rotor bearing housing for wind turbines that allows reliable support of the rotor shaft and tower connection. The housing has a long bearing body extending along the rotor shaft axis. The bearing body has receptacles at each end for the rotor bearings. The housing is mounted on the tower with the bearing receptacle facing the rotor. This configuration allows the first bearing to be outside the tower at the end, providing a large load transmission span. The housing completely surrounds the shaft between bearings. The second bearing is inside the housing. This layout enables larger spacing between bearings than tower diameter. The bearing housing is rotatably fastened to the tower using a yaw base element.

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Steel tower ring segment for wind turbine towers that improves strength, assembly, and weight compared to conventional flanges. The segment has a thickening region near the joint side with a cutout. A bolt can pass through the cutout and joint side to connect adjacent segments. This avoids large flanges by concentrating thickening at the joint and allowing bolts to directly connect the segments. It reduces material, weight, and assembly complexity compared to flanges.

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In-situ replacement of wind turbine generator wye rings without removing the generator from the turbine. The method involves accessing the damaged wye ring, removing it, cleaning the attachment locations, installing replacement ring sections by welding or brazing, insulating the new ring, installing new blocking, and adhesively securing the blocking. This allows replacing a faulty wye ring without disassembling the entire generator and lifting the turbine. The modular ring design reduces stress compared to a single ring.

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Optimizing the airgap between the stator and rotor of a large permanent magnet electric generator for wind turbines to improve performance while preventing collisions. A controller adjusts the current in the winding systems to generate radial magnetic forces that increase airgap when it's too small and decrease airgap when it's too large. Sensors measure the airgap at multiple locations around the generator. This allows more precise control than just a single airgap sensor.

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A fatigue resistant foundation for wind turbines that provides improved lifespan and cost efficiency compared to conventional gravity foundations. The foundation uses a central pedestal, radial ribs, and a bottom slab all cast in place. The ribs are prefabricated and connect to the slab and pedestal. The foundation is post-tensioned vertically, horizontally, diagonally, radially, and circumferentially to reduce stress amplitudes. The precast ribs allow modular construction and speed up foundation assembly. The small concrete mass-to-surface area ratio improves heat dissipation and reduces risk of thermal cracking.

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A platform for a wind turbine tower that allows improved support and reduced movement inside the tower. The platform has a hanging arrangement inside the tower. It has a supporting foot section that contacts the tower wall, an abutment section attached to the platform, and a pretension mechanism. The pretension mechanism preloads the foot section against the abutment section with a force. The foot section can move towards the platform when loads exceed the pretension force. This allows the platform to compress the pretension mechanism and absorb load peaks while preventing excessive horizontal movement.

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High performance density planetary gearbox for wind turbines, industrial applications, and other drive systems with tight installation space requirements. The gearbox has a unique spider feature between the planetary carrier and internal gear that prevents contact while allowing tight spacing. The spider positions the carrier cheeks and has an inner radius smaller than the internal gear tip circle. This avoids collision during assembly and operation while still allowing axial movement. The spider reduces radial spacing compared to just using the carrier cheeks. The gearbox has multiple planetary stages with this spider feature for high performance density.

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Vertical axis wind turbine design that allows floating wind farms without the need for guy wires or heavy support structures. The turbine uses a unique blade configuration where the lower segments of the blades form an inverted pyramid shape around the hub. Guy wires connect the distal ends of the lower segments to anchor points, while bracing wires connect the anchor points to the hub. This configuration provides stability and support for the turbine without requiring guy wires attached high above the rotor. It allows floating wind farms to be built with less expensive and less space-consuming floating platforms.

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Vertical axis wind turbine with a vertical shaft rotor that is directly connected between the generators without bearings. The upper and lower generators are arranged in horizontal frames above and below the shaft. The shaft extends vertically through the generators, with its upper and lower ends coupled to the generator shafts. This alignment and cooperation of the shaft ends reduces torsion and vibration compared to using bearings. The shaft-generator connections are covered to prevent decoupling.

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A dynamically adjustable bi-directional wind turbine that can move to optimize wind capture and reduce maintenance costs. The turbine has a tilting boom connected to a multiaxial drive mechanism that allows the turbine to pivot vertically and horizontally. A counterweight system moves the turbine between raised and lowered positions. This enables the turbine to be repositioned to face the best wind direction and speed. The tilting boom and counterweight system are operated by sensors and controllers based on wind data. The adjustable turbine reduces the need for tall towers and complex yaw systems to capture variable wind. It also enables easier maintenance access and reduces noise compared to fixed towers.

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Liquid damper for wind turbine towers that provides effective damping over a wide range of frequencies, including during transportation and installation, by preventing circular motion. The damper has a toroid shape fitting inside the tower, with vertical ribs in the cylindrical walls to disrupt rotational motion. This allows the tower oscillations to be damped even if they have a fore-aft and side-to-side component. The ribs prevent a rotational mode of the liquid inside. The damper width matches the tower interior.

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A wind turbine system with adjustable blades that can optimize drag and lift forces for higher efficiency, lower wind speeds, and reduced damage. The system has multiple blade assemblies with pivoting sub-blades. A main control unit adjusts the sub-blade angles during rotation to optimize forward drag and lift. This is done by rotating the blade shafts using primary control arrangements. The sub-blades open and close using secondary control arrangements. This allows partial or full blocking of wind flow. The blade panel design with adjustable sub-blades enables higher efficiency at lower speeds, protection against high winds, and smoother torque output during gusts.

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A wind turbine rotor bearing design with improved stability and sealing. The bearing has split bearing rings that are clamped together with segments. This allows easier assembly and disassembly compared to fully integrated rings. However, split rings can have lower axial stability due to gaps between segments. The improved design fills those gaps with plastic or metal to create a continuous sealing surface. This provides enhanced stability while retaining the benefits of split rings. It also allows the clamp rings to have different axial lengths since sealing is only required on one side.

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Attaching auxiliary components to wind turbine towers in a way that reduces weight and cost compared to traditional methods. Instead of welding fixtures to the tower to attach internals like ladders and platforms, the components are partially enclosed within the tower section and secured with couplings on both the component and the tower. The force exerted by the component on the tower is perpendicular to the force exerted by the component on the tower inner surface. This allows the component to flex perpendicularly to the inner surface force. This prevents needing thicker tower walls at the attachment point since the forces are balanced.

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A vertical axis wind turbine blade design to improve performance by delaying blade stall. The blade has a leading edge slat with a curved hollow channel extending from the slat to the blade surface. An airflow blocker obstructs the channel. This creates a suction effect that helps prevent flow separation and stall. The slanted leading edge with the curved channel and blocker allows reattachment of the airflow. The design allows higher angles of attack before stall compared to conventional blades.

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Fatigue resistant foundation for wind turbines with improved construction speed, cost and reliability compared to conventional gravity style foundations. The foundation design involves a central pedestal, radial ribs, and a continuous bottom slab. The pedestal and slab are cast in situ while the ribs are prefabricated. Post-tensioning elements are embedded in the concrete to provide compression and reduce stress amplitudes. This allows a continuous monolithic foundation with small concrete mass and surface area ratio to prevent thermal cracking.

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