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Nowadays, wind energy is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly energies in high demand due to shortages in fossil fuels and the necessity to reduce global carbon footprint. One of the main goals of wind turbine development is to increase the power output of the turbine either by increasing the turbine blade swept area or increasing the velocity of the wind. In this article, a proprietary augmentation system was introduced to increase the power output of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) by increasing the free stream velocity to more than two folds. The system comprises two identical airfoiled casings within which the turbine/turbines are seated. The results showed that the velocity slightly increases when decreasing the gap between the casing. It was also found that changing the angle of attack of the housing has more impact on the augmented airspeed. CFD technique was used to assess the velocity and flow of air around the system.

To meet the growing energy demand and increasing environmental concerns, clean and renewable fluid energy, such as wind and ocean energy, has received considerable attention. This study proposes a bladeless wind energy–harvesting device based vortex-induced vibrations (VIV). The proposed design is mainly composed of a base, a hollow mast, and an elastic rod. The proposed design takes advantage of vortices generated when the airflow interacts with the mast, and the flow splits and then separates and generates vortices that eventually make the elastic rod oscillate, and out of these oscillations, energy can be harvested. Different airflow disruption geometries are studied and tested numerically and experimentally to identify the most effective shape and orientation for converting wind energy to electric energy. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and simulations were performed on the elastic mast, a VIV device’s core wind energy–collecting component, to guide the device’s design. These simulations examined the mast-produced lift coefficient, velocity, pressure, and vorticity contours of different mast geometries. The mast’s vibration energy under different wind intensities was also experimentally tested using a scaled model in the wind tunnel. The level of converted electric power was measured and monitored using piezoelectric sensors mounted at different locations on the mast. The experimental study identified the ideal orientation angle of the mast and the best location for the piezoelectric sensors for harnessing more energy. The experiments confirmed the CFD simulation results that a complex cylinder design produces more power. The combined numerical and experimental studies led to an environmentally friendly, new VIV design with much improved power generation capabilities.

The electricity consumption in residential/office buildings corresponded to 45% of the total annual electricity demand in hot-arid climates. This accounted for 27.2 TWh of electricity consumption with 14.2 MWh/capita/year in Kuwait. In this research, four offices in an educational building were equipped with a meteorological data logging system using temperature, humidity, and illuminance sensors. All four offices had double-glazed windows. Moreover, two offices were equipped with two types of commercially available window films. Two million data were stored in iCloud using Wi-Fi and an Internet of Things (IoT) system for the 3 months of June, July, and August 2019. Here, histograms and the kernel density estimation (KDE) of temperature/humidity were analyzed and compared for the two offices with/without 3M Neutral 20 window films. Two floors of the same building consisting of 31 offices were also modeled and simulated to study energy saving and CO2 footprint reduction using various window films. The results of simulations for the month of July 2019 using SOL 101 and SOL 102 window films, respectively, showed that about 250 kg and 255 kg of production of CO2 could be reduced and energy saving counted for 416 and 422 kWh. Measurements from offices with 3M Neutral 20% and 3M Neutral 70% window films for the month of July 2019 indicated that the carbon footprint could be reduced by about 82 kg and 0.43 kg and energy saving counted for 147.11 and 0.71 kWh, respectively. It was observed that an annual energy saving and CO2 footprint reduction of 2.76% could be achieved using window films in a hot-arid climate.