1 00:00:00,220 --> 00:00:01,420 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:05,720 Renewable energy is very much the future of not just the national energy 3 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:11,610 portfolio but the world energy portfolio. Turbines that are designed right now, 4 00:00:11,610 --> 00:00:16,340 they're three blades, they face the wind. Very efficient, where we have an 5 00:00:16,340 --> 00:00:19,560 issue is if we want to build extreme scale wind turbines. 6 00:00:19,660 --> 00:00:24,320 As you get these larger wind turbines, your blades end up becoming more flexible and if you're 7 00:00:24,330 --> 00:00:27,860 upwind then when the wind comes in and hits those blades, they can curve 8 00:00:27,860 --> 00:00:32,380 backwards and then it can hit that tower and destroy the entire turbine. 9 00:00:32,380 --> 00:00:37,920 We need a turbine that's more resilient and also larger so we can take it even more energy. 10 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:43,620 The palm tree is a fantastic example of something very very tall is 11 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:46,320 lightweight and can bend with the wind. 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:47,880 [MUSIC] [THUNDER] 13 00:00:48,090 --> 00:00:52,280 So we just took those concepts that nature had already presented to us and adapted 14 00:00:52,290 --> 00:00:57,420 our blade design, moved it downwind, so it could cone and morph like a palm tree. 15 00:00:57,420 --> 00:01:01,230 These winds that come in, there's more aligned with the blades and they can 16 00:01:01,230 --> 00:01:05,640 bend away from the tower and then we can make them larger and larger and that way 17 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,460 you can capture more power. 18 00:01:07,460 --> 00:01:13,140 We spent several years designing this now we've actually fabricated a prototype. 19 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,640 This 10-story tall prototype is located at 20 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:21,360 National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado where the winds can be up to 21 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:25,770 100 miles an hour, so it represents a condition where there's extreme winds 22 00:01:25,770 --> 00:01:27,920 that you would have to be resilient against. 23 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:29,960 As a student at the University of Virginia, 24 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:33,600 I came out to Colorado for these testings to be able to see if this 25 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:37,900 model is going to react as the full-scale rotor would react. 26 00:01:38,540 --> 00:01:43,500 If it performs as good as we think it could and should, we would then go to the next 27 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:46,120 level and produce a turbine that's even larger 28 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:47,680 [MUSIC PLAYING] 29 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,360 The end goal for this is actually to make it into manufacturing and have 30 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:58,520 entire farms producing power at very high efficiency and at very low cost 31 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,380 [MUSIC PLAYING] 32 00:02:01,380 --> 00:02:05,810 Being able to actually see our project go from us just sitting on a computer to 33 00:02:05,810 --> 00:02:10,069 having something physically there is super rewarding, we can actually see our 34 00:02:10,069 --> 00:02:14,360 work come to life and it's something that other people in the future will use 35 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:15,760 and learn from. 36 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:20,940 This could revolutionize wind energy not just for the state, not 37 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:22,560 just for the nation, but for the world. 38 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,540 [MUSIC PLAYING]