Researchers at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen have partnered with Dundee-based Sustainable Urban Energy Ltd (SUE) to investigate the potential of a wind turbine the size of a satellite dish that could save home-owners hundreds of pounds a year (www.poweredbysue.com).

The turbine was conceived by SUE director and founder Neil Coulson who said: “The company was incorporated in February 2019, but the project of creating a self-generation product started over 10 years earlier, when I was living a sustainable lifestyle on five acres of land north of Aberdeen.

"It has taken many years, watching how wind interacts with nature, researching existing products and understanding domestic energy requirements.”

With encouragement and assistance from Business Gateway, Scottish Enterprise and local business, the first prototype was 3-D printed in August 2018.

Ahmad Ayub, Sheikh Islam and Nazmi Sellami at RGU’s School of Engineering subsequently (www.rgu.ac.uk) teamed up with Mr Coulson to create a working third-scale prototype turbine specifically designed to work in an urban wind environment.

The project has been funded by a £5,000 Interface Innovation Voucher — available in Scotland to encourage new partnerships between a company and a university or further-education college.

Using the wind tunnel and data acquisition facilities at the university, the performance of the turbine was evaluated under various operating conditions.

A technical report summarising the results and offering suggestions for design enhancement was then provided to SUE.

Mr Coulson concluded: “The experimental results gave us the proof of concept we required, as well as data that may be useful in assessing areas within the design that require further improvement.”