Advancement:

     Over the past decade, the swept diameter of wind turbine blades has about doubled (3). This increase in diameter corresponds to a greater energy production. In 2010 the United States had zero installed wind turbines with a 115 meter or larger diameter blade. In 2020 91% of the wind turbines installed had a blade of this classification or greater (1). The longer the blades, the more air they can capture, therefore producing more energy. This is efficient over previous designs due to the fact that it does not require multiple different wind turbine installations to create more energy, it is an improvement of the design of a single energy producing turbine. This problem of wind turbine efficiency is shared by all users of wind turbines, not specific to a single manufacturer or installer (2). The approach to solving the problem is simple: How can we make existing wind turbine designs more efficient while keeping the cost of production compared to energy generation improving. The solution to this problem was shown to be a rather simple one, if we make the blades that capture the wind bigger, they will capture more wind and produce more energy. There are a few other approaches to this problem that could be taken; The blade airfoil design could be changed to allow for more efficient production given the same amount of area and material. We could also look to optimize the way the wind is directed onto the blades through a directional shrouding system. 

Incorporation:

     This advancement needs to happen early in the design process. This is not an improvement that is done to existing turbines, rather a design change that happens when the initial generation calculations and preliminary designs are being made. With my purpose being to create an efficient wind turbine that can power a house in a residential/commercial area, this design change could be beneficial. The ability to power the entire building using the extra energy produced, could be a large factor in making the design change. However, one of the criteria was to keep the design aesthetically pleasing, and a turbine with double the size blade diameters, takes up a lot more space in the field of view. If this advancement were to be incorporated into a design, it could be noticed at first glance. When comparing an older wind turbine, to a newer design with a longer blade diameter, you could tell immediately which one has the updated design. As stated earlier, part of my design was to keep the wind turbine as aesthetically pleasing as possible. This design improvement could cause some trouble while trying to integrate, while keeping true to the set constraints. The trouble would come from the fact that the turbine is meant to be compact, incorporating a larger diameter blade into the design would not only mean that the spinning diameter of the turbine would take up more space, but the height would have to be increased as well. At first, it is somewhat intuitive to think that a larger blade diameter would produce more energy, however it is interesting to know that the growth in power generation is exponential, meaning a turbine with double the blade size does not have double the power generation, it has much more. The image below helps to demonstrate this effect (1).

     In order to integrate this advancement into my project, a number of things need to be done. First, calculations would need to be made to see how much energy is actually needed to power an average home, and how much more we need to produce from our current design to get to that goal. After these calculations are made, it can be determined how much larger the blades have to be made to reach that goal. A decision matrix can also be made using some of the original criteria used to decide on the wind turbine in the first place. Using this criteria to weigh the options of the design as is versus the design with the improvement would be the next step in determining whether or not this advancement should be implemented into the design. 

Sources: 

(1): https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/wind-turbines-bigger-better

(2): https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/6-advances-in-wind-energy

(3): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/longer-turbine-blades-have-slashed-wind-energy-costs/