A turbine based off the natural world

Undula Tech has developed an energy producing turbine inspired by the locomotion of a cuttlefish. It can harvest the energy of flowing mediums like air and water, and perhaps more! Our goal is to make renewable energy accessible and affordable to ordinary people all over the world, so the  Undula Generator is, by design, far more adaptable, sustainable and cost-effective than rotary turbines and solar panels. It is designed to be mounted on rooftops or sides of homes or buildings, along roadways or in tunnels, or in flowing water like rivers or tidal flows, as a non-invasive hydro turbine.

The Undula Generator is unique in many ways. In wind applications, we can eliminate the need for a tower, and instead, place varying lengths fin apparatus along existing unused platforms that experience flowing wind: roof lines of all shapes and sizes. We can satisfy the esthetic critics of wind and solar by using long stretches of these fins in places where the sight of them is of no consequence: in the ceilings of vehicle tunnels, in long stretches of highway medians. This design also has the potential to be more aesthetically pleasing. Long colorful stretches of the generator can be incorporated into the designs of (or added to) buildings. Corners where windflow is most common would be ideal on tall buildings. In both wind and water applications, there are no high speed blades to present dangers to maintenance crews or wildlife.  

The staggering cost of impactful residential wind or solar power - $40,000 and $60,000 - means that renewable energy is out of reach for many people around the globe. Additionally, wind, solar and hydro solutions all create other problems that run contrary to the global reasons for eliminating fossil fuels in the first place.

Undula Tech solves two problems:

1) Ordinary people and governments around the world will have access to affordable renewable energy generation.  

2) It resolves many of the significant environmental drawbacks of wind, solar and hydro technologies.

As a wind generator, it is tower-less (saving 30% of the cost) and can take advantage of countless underutilized placements for energy generation: rooflines, vertical corners on buildings, highway medians, and tunnels. As a hydro generator, it will have no impact on the ecosystem and is fish-safe. It will have none of the toxic material sourcing or waste management problems that burden solar technology.

In five years, Undula Tech has taken a 16-year-old girl’s inspired doodle, all the way from an idea to proof of concept prototype and patent pending status. Now I need the support of a community of thought leaders. Here’s why: In the course of preparing to patent the concept, we commissioned a global patent search and found that almost no one has explored the potential of undulation as a means of harnessing the inherent energy of flowing mediums.

That means the potential to guide this concept to its full capabilities is not encumbered by previous social notions, politics, scientific critics, market biases, or any of the normal barriers that limit major leaps of innovations. For the field of Biomimicry, this could be the next Velcro or Bullet Train success story, all from the humble cuttlefish.  

The longevity of this ancient design - undulation - has already proven successful. It’s up to us to replicate its secrets.

We will need the support of a community of philanthropic organizations,  business-minded innovators, engineers, local government leaders and sustainability enthusiasts to guide this concept to all the ways it could benefit humanity.

THe PRototype

The current prototype is a functioning scale model, ready for optimization. The design consists of a fin held upright by ribs which are connected to a crankshaft. As wind or water passes by the fin, it undulates causing the crankshaft to spin and turn a generator.

Our first model was a rough proof of concept machine, built by a local machinist, essentially straight from my imagination as a junior in high school, but it worked! A second model was built by the machinists in the engineering department at Clarkson University and we are currently testing this model to inform the next design iteration for specific improvement goals. Preliminary results show that the design has the promise and can be optimized.

I have had a provisional patent on the design since 2016 and filed for a full patent on October 15, 2018.

THe Value

Our goal was to use the design of cuttlefish fins to solve the pain points in renewable energy. Our focus was to challenge convention to find new solutions. We asked questions like, “what if a wind turbine didn’t have a tower?”, and “Can we harness the power of turbulent wind patterns instead of chasing straight line winds?”, and “Can we find a solution that uses things we already have a lot of, rather than taking paths that use more resources and in the end, create waste (some toxic)?” We asked, “Why can’t there be a passive way to use flowing water, that co-exists with its natural surroundings?”  

Undula Tech’s competitive advantage is the Generator’s market acceptance and accessibility. The Undula turbine would satisfy many of the drawbacks we have found with wind, solar and hydro alternatives and be a cost effective option for many more people.