Top all-time · #11577
Paul Gipe
Personal blog · wind-works.orgscienceeconomics
Paul Gipe writes WIND WORKS, a personal blog at wind-works.org about science and economics. Since 2008, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 10 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Paul Gipe's site as an archive on wind turbine designs and wind energy history, including unusual and rooftop designs. It is cited as a source on why many alternative designs failed.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
What Hacker News says?
The CCS2 standard used in Europe and most of the world locks the cable similarly to Tesla. The CCS1 standard locks the cable using a little flap that folds down on top of the CCS1 latch to hold it in place. Its every bit as clumsy as it sounds, but it does mean there is a locked cable. Example CCS1 inlet: http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=84&tx_ttnews%5Btt...
Comment linking /cms/index.php?id=84&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4910&cHash=f50ba9197ea0b5c98e5739aa2504e43f
on “EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices”Your BS detector should be bleeping at full force. There is a long, long history of failed attempts to build ducted wind turbines. The fundamental question is whether, for the revenue you'll gain from the energy gains, it's more efficient to put the money into building a duct or extending your turbine blades a bit more. Unfortunately, building all the extra structure to support the duct is expensive. The history is…
Comment linking /cms/index.php?id=541
on “Sheerwind”Their big advantage is that they do not need to be pointed into the wind, and appear conceptually simple, they also have their generator on the ground which is an advantage. But they suffer from oscillation and vibration and such low TSR designs as the one in the article will suffer from shading. The concept can work, but typically the machines end up requiring a lot of maintenance and extremely careful design. The…
Comment linking /cms/index.php?id=506
on “$30 DIY Kilowatt Wind Turbine (2017)”The reverse, a vertical axis wind turbine, example being the McDonnell Aircraft Giromill. http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=503
Comment linking /cms/index.php?id=503
on “Voith Schneider Propeller”Paul Gipe’s website [1] is always worth checking out when it comes to unusual wind turbine designs. He knows a ton about the history of wind energy, and lots of things have been tried before. And this NREL report [2] is also relevant. It reviews a number of rooftop wind projects. None of them met their energy goals. And the report also recommends sticking with 3rd party certified horizontal axis wind turbines (but t…
Comment linking /wind/small-wind/rooftop-and-urban-wind/
on “Startup is about to install bladeless rooftop wind turbines on box buildings”There's a bunch of maths around Betz' law that dictates how the efficiency works, but it turns out that the theoretically optimal structure is a single blade: http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=543 For mechanical engineering reasons, mostly to do with evening out the load at the point of blade attachment, the industry has mostly converged on three. This is also linked to tip speed ratio: http://www.reuk.co.u…
Comment linking /cms/index.php?id=543
on “A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment”Every couple of years someone will jump out of nowhere and claim the wind energy sector has it all wrong, the list is very long. Windtree, Makani and many many others that replace simple and sturdy as well as well understood mechanisms with highly variable and fragile ones, usually without having studied the corpses of those that came before and died on the hill of unnecessary complexity. The closest that ever came…
Comment linking /cms/typo3temp/pics/EoleCapChat045x7_02_6bf4ee5a45.jpg
on “Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters”http://www.wind-works.org/articles/RoofTopMounting.html Mounting wind turbines--of any kind--on a building is a very bad idea. I've yet to see an application where this has worked or will likely work. In short, rooftop turbines will not do what their promoters claim and often will cause their owners no end of grief. http://www.wind-works.org/articles/VentilatorsandSquirrelsin... Like ducted turbines, a perennial fav…
Comment linking /articles/VentilatorsandSquirrelsinaCage%20.html
on “Energy Ball: Wind turbine for home use”Great article! Paul Gipe’s website is also a great resource for anyone interested in the history of wind energy. https://wind-works.org/wind/history-of-wind-power/
Comment linking /wind/history-of-wind-power/
on “This 1976 University Experiment Spun Up the U.S. Wind Industry”
