Daniel Farb, CEO, Leviathan Wind Energizer (Courtesy)
A new Israeli technology is about to make a paradigm shift in the wind industry. Leviathan Wind Energizer is conducting a crowdfunding campaign to obtain certification in order to reach the market.
Israel brings blessings to the world in many ways, one of them being technology that benefits everyone. Sometimes it happens in unexpected ways.
Dr. Daniel Farb, inventor and CEO of Leviathan Wind Energizer, immigrated from the U.S. to Israel, where he developed a technology that makes an about-face in the wind industry. Instead of squeezing out an extra percentage point of efficiency from a better blade or other turbine improvement, Farb decided it would make more sense to change the wind rather than work on the turbine.
“It is a game-changer and sometimes hard for industry experts to understand or adapt to,” he said.
By using distant deflectors built according to complex computer programs, his company makes the wind hit the turbines at higher speed. It works because the power is proportional to the speed cubed, so a small increase in speed is multiplied twice.
Leviathan Energy’s Wind Lotus wind turbine (YouTube)
“In general, we can improve the power output by at least 30%,” Farb told United with Israel. “But when we did a 24-hour run of our test turbine versus a control turbine in the Negev Desert, we increased the power by 156%. It also makes the turbines start at lower speeds.”
“Our goal is to demonstrate this at Colorado’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, probably the foremost wind energy lab, and additionally bring in a certification company, which enables a product in the wind industry to obtain bank financing,” he explained. “That is what we need to go to market. Then, if fully implemented just on existing wind turbines in the US, they would produce another 50,000 Gigawatt-hours per year.”
Indeed, that would be enough energy to light trillions of light bulbs for one hour.
Leviathan Wind Energizer, based in the U.S., is now conducting a crowdfunding campaign in order to make a large-scale demonstration and certify the technology, which would enable it to reach the market.
The technology was awarded third place in Israel’s Cleantech Open by a panel of scientists and venture capitalists. The first US patent was granted in 2012.
Below is a video showing the turbine with the deflector producing electricity at very low speed wind while its neighbor without it isn’t even moving.
