DOST panel evaluates wind turbine Nautilus

A panel of experts formed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has conducted an evaluation of the revolutionary wind turbine designed by retired general Victor Corpus.

Jose Patalinjug III, DOST National Capital Region director, said the evaluation was meant to fast-track research and development of the Nautilus and pave the way for its commercialization if found viable.

The team was composed of department engineers from the Technology Application and Promotion Institute, Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development, Metals Industry Research and Development Center, Industrial Technology and Development Institute, and the Renewable Energy Management Bureau of the Department of Energy (DOE-REMB).

From academe, the panel included engineering faculty from state-funded Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Rizal Technological University and Technological University of the Philippines, as well as De La Salle University.

The state energy company PNOC Renewables Corp. was also represented in the panel.

Oscar Sevilla Jr., DOST NCR cluster director, said the evaluation report is expected this month, including proposals on how the department can provide assistance to Corpus’ R&D on the Nautilus and linkages that can speed up commercialization.

Corpus, 73, said the Nautilus, designed with a vertical axis wind turbine, had solved the technical flaws of the horizontal axis wind turbine – the technology behind the giant and towering windmills seen in wind farms. Other vertical axis wind turbines have long been considered as not viable for commercial wind energy generation.

The Nautilus wind turbine basically has an enclosing structure employing the principle of “weirs” – built in rivers to redirect water flow either for hydropower or to trap fish – to achieve multiple areas of wind velocity to generate energy.

“It’s V (velocity)-cubed,” Corpus said earlier. “There is an exponential increase in the energy generated by the usual wind turbines of windmills.”

He said that the Nautilus wind turbine will be much cheaper to adopt because “unlike with windmills, you don’t have to build high towers. It’s ground-based so it’s cheaper and easier to build, operate and maintain.”

Corpus said that existing power generation companies especially those that already have wind farms can place the Nautilus under their giant windmills and maximize huge land areas. He said that these existing wind farms are also connected to the power grid.

Corpus said that in the Philippines, the Sierra Madre can serve as a giant wind farm.

After retiring with the rank of brigadier general in 2004, Corpus quietly did research on renewable energy, initially on ocean tides.

Corpus was appointed to the board of state energy firm Philippine National Oil Corp.’s alternative arm, PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. in 2005.

It was during his more than one year stint as board director at the PNOC-AFC that he got an extension education on renewable or alternative energy.

“I got really interested because I learned that the Philippines… composed of so many islands, has enough ocean resources that can supply the whole country with clean energy. So I started my research on tidal currents,” he said.

Corpus said initial efforts were focused on developing turbines to generate energy from ocean tides, the breakthrough coming in the wake of a natural disaster.

He explained that energy tapped from the ocean mainly comes from tidal currents heading shoreward, especially between neighboring islands. “There is a Venturi effect when these ocean currents pass between two islands,” Corpus said.

He said he had for years been developing a turbine for ocean tidal energy, first in miniature, and then a bigger protoype, and doing experiments in swimming pools and in the sea off Lubang island, Mindoro, when a fateful natural disaster pushed his R&D toward a different direction.

An experimental ocean tidal turbine he had built was blown away by waves and gales brought by a typhoon in 2009, forcing his team to build another prototype.

While installing the ocean tidal turbine into the sea off Lubang, they set down the prototype on the beach. There they noticed that the winds blowing incessantly into the island had sent the turbines spinning, effortlessly generating power for a linked-up generator.

“It was the eureka moment for the Nautilus,” Corpus said.