
Wind Turbines Inspired by Insect Wings Are 35% More Efficient - M_Grey
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/wind-turbines-inspired-insect-wings-are-35-more-efficient
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ouid
Presumably each of the designs has an associated installation and
manufacturing cost. Is efficiency here measuring power/cost, power/blade area,
power/blade volume, power/land area...?

This does not seem like the kind of principle that would be overlooked by
engineers in a technology that is as old as sailing until "just now".

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upofadown
Variable pitch is a well known technique. Flexible blades are used by some
types of light aircraft propellers. In the case of the propellers the
improvement is not as great as with full variable pitch but the
cost/simplicity is better. So the same sort of thing probably applies here.
Some technique would have to be found that was cheap/reliable enough to end up
with a better result than boring old variable pitch done with bearings and
gears.

