The Answer is Blowing in the Wind - Infield operational insight helps energy start-up fuel innovation
Vortex Bladeless, a tech start-up in Spain, specializes in developing aerogenerators with no blades. This new wind energy technology is designed for on-site generation in residential areas, being able to work on-grid, off-grid, or along with regular solar panels or other generators.
In order to advance development of this technology, the team required real-time operational insights using telemetry data from prototype equipment in the field. Together with Altair, the team arrived at an easy solution that used off-the-shelf components and Altair’s SmartWorks IoT platform-as-a-service model to carry out remote monitoring of their equipment.
“Having the whole system integrated remotely lets us continuously monitor the performance of the equipment. The performance monitoring panel ensures that, when the product hits the market, its level of maturity will be higher and substantially greater than it would be otherwise,” said David Yáñez, Inventor and Cofounder, Vortex Bladeless.
IoT-Fueled Dashboards and Digital Twins
Together, Vortex and Altair developed an IoT-based product monitoring board, as well as a digital twin for one of their products.
The monitoring dashboard measures the power consumption in operating mode, helping to understand operating failures, and setting up an alarm system. These measurements enable visualization and understanding of critical parameters that affect performance of the equipment.
The digital twin is used to estimate the wind direction and the velocity the product might undergo under varying operational conditions. The idea is to create a virtual representation of the model and the wind sensor to be able to predict conditions and outcomes with limited sensors on the physical equipment.
Altair SmartWorks IoT enables Vortex to achieve their goals faster, move quickly in a very competitive market, and make improvements in a short period of time by providing real-time data and the graphic analytic tools to support decision-making.
In the future, Vortex Bladeless can easily extend the monitoring to controlling of the equipment, as well as, use the data to uncover insights about the structural integrity of the equipment to improve the next generation of bladeless turbines.
With Vortex and SmartWorks IoT, the future of sustainable energy is bladeless turbines - the answer is blowing in the winds, literally.