58 MAY / JUNE 2022 popularmechanics.co.za
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Brayfoil’s morphing blade technology has
been wind-tunnel tested at the University
of Stellenbosch and the CSIR, with thorough
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis
having also been performed. The team has
built working prototypes (at 7.5 m long) of
a 1:10 scale five megawatt blade and a 1:3
five megawatt blade segment, all of which
morph effectively.
$1m (around R14m) was raised from
the Technology Innovation Agency in
2019 for the construction of a pilot project,
which is set to go up at the University of
Stellenbosch during the second quarter
of this year. The turbine will be 24 m high
with 7.5 m blades, and will be coupled with
dynamic modelling of large-scale turbine
performance using software from the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
in the United States.
In total, the team has obtained $2.3m
(approximately R35m) since inception in
2017, from angel investors, government
grants and venture capitalists. Funding
was also raised from the Norwegian
venture capital fund Katapult Ocean in
2021, one of the top 50 climate investors
in the world, while Brayfoil has just been
selected to receive grant funding from the
UK government as a part of the TechX
accelerator with the Net Zero Technology
Centre, in collaboration with bp Ventures,
Equinor Ventures and Accenture. At Hello
Tomorrow 2019 in Paris, Brayfoil was
identified as one of the Top 100 Deep Tech
Pioneers, and in 2021, they were a part of
the prestigious CleanTech Open accelerator
programme out of the USA, as well as Creative
Destruction Lab’s Climate Stream at the
HEC Paris business school.
The path ahead for Brayfoil is not straight
cut, but in a world where wind energy is
very clearly one of the major components in
the push towards ‘net zero’, the company’s
technology stands out as a viable and cost-
effective way forwards for the energy
industry. Following the pilot project, the
team will be seeking further funding to
build a full-scale pilot project. They will
also be engaging with industry partners,
ultimately taking their breakthrough
technology to market, either via licensing
to manufacturers to incorporate into the
next generation of turbines, or by building
blades for the retrofit market.
The company was started by father-and-
son team Robert and Matthew Bray, on the
back of 15 years of research and prototyping
by Robert. Brayfoil’s remarkable technology
was inspired by the shapes formed by bird’s
wings in flight, particularly how they change
curvature. This was first observed by
Robert in Cape vultures at Marakele Game
Reserve. What he saw subsequently tied in
with further investigations carried out by
Oxford University researchers in 2009. This
work showed similar shape changes in owl
wings. This is all yet another example of
nature inspiring advances in industrial
design, which is bringing us closer to a
more sustainable future.THE
BRAYFOIL TEAM
While their work is set to
be revolutionary, it’s the
personnel at Brayfoil who
deserve special mention:(^) Matthew Bray
(MScFinance; ex-Goldman
Sachs and BASF):
Co-founder and CEO
(^) Shailin Moodley
(Aeronautical Engineering,
Wits; sold his AI/ML start-up
to IBM): Lead Engineer
(^) Mushir Khan (MScEng,
University of Houston;
ex-head of Engineering
for Worley SSA): CTO
(^) Hrishabh Rajeev (BEng,
University of Cape Town):
Junior Engineer
(^) Kieron Baart (Final year
BEng, University of Pretoria):
Engineering Intern
(^) Thamba Nkabinde:
Workshop Manager
(^) Flerry Tshabalala:
Composite Artisan
(^) Reuben Nkadibeng:
Composite Artisan
- Highly experienced artisans lay
up composites for a blade section;
a whiffletree test rig and a scaled-
down prototype can be seen in the
background. - Offshore wind power generation
amounted to a whopping 25 TWh
in 2020.
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