Winds at higher altitudes become steadier, more persistent, and of higher velocity. Historically, wind turbines are placed on Earth’s surface, but idea of capturing the power of winds high in the sky seems to be great chance. According to research presented on this page:
http://www.nature.com/
“Turbines placed on Earth’s surface could extract kinetic energy at a rate of at least 400 TW, whereas high-altitude wind power could extract more than 1,800 TW.”
Idea of high-altitude wind power is quite old. Was introduced by John Etzler's technological utopianist in 1833 but nowadays we can observe huge interest it this area. Few days ago Google has acquired a US company Makani Power specialized in fully autonomous flights of robot kites bearing its power-generating propellers. You can read nice article about that on BBC web page.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Some other interesting thinks about this concept you can find in a little bit older article on this web page:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/
http://www.nature.com/
“Turbines placed on Earth’s surface could extract kinetic energy at a rate of at least 400 TW, whereas high-altitude wind power could extract more than 1,800 TW.”
Idea of high-altitude wind power is quite old. Was introduced by John Etzler's technological utopianist in 1833 but nowadays we can observe huge interest it this area. Few days ago Google has acquired a US company Makani Power specialized in fully autonomous flights of robot kites bearing its power-generating propellers. You can read nice article about that on BBC web page.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Some other interesting thinks about this concept you can find in a little bit older article on this web page:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/
- What do you think about concept of high-altitude wind power?
- What about Google investment. Is it yet another PR trick to be known as company putting its resources into some novel technologies like self-driving cars and wearable devices with not always have a future?
- What do you think about traditional wind plants ? They are always highly visible in any landscape. Some people like it, others are against saying that is not healthy for people and kills millions of birds.
I don't mind traditional wind plants, I think they look good against any landscape. I don't know how true it is that birds get killed on them.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of flying wind turbines sounds like a solution looking for a problem. It's hard to imagine how an airborne fleet of small power generators could be more cost effective than a traditional windmill. Maybe in places where there is no space for towers, or not enough wind at ground level, it makes sense. For example in cities, attached to roof tops. Of course then they would pose a greater threat to infrastructure and people in those places in case of a malfunction.
I found this article about solar panels:
http://www.economist.com/news/21566414-alternative-energy-will-no-longer-be-alternative-sunny-uplands
Looks like the cost of solar energy is becoming more and more competitive.
Interesting idea. I wonder if it is going to emerge on a global scale.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand imagine how nice it would be if we could stock up on a huge amount of power somehow.
We are good at using power but not good enough in collecting one for a later use.
You could gather the heat during the sunny summertime to warm your house during winter.
What do you think about concept of high-altitude wind power?
DeleteI am not sure about the safety of this kind of solutions. How to assure true prevention from falling down to earth?
On the other hand I like the idea. The wind seems to be more stable and stronger up there.
What about Google investment. Is it yet another PR trick to be known as company putting its resources into some novel technologies like self-driving cars and wearable devices with not always have a future?
I am not sure. I think that Google as company well positioned in the data centre industry needs substantial amount of power. All promising ideas even thinking out of the box fit the power hunger of their data centres.
What do you think about traditional wind plants ? They are always highly visible in any landscape. Some people like it, others are against saying that is not healthy for people and kills millions of birds.
I agree that dozens of dense traditional wind plant can spoil the view. I do not know if birds are in danger with traditional wind mills. If yes then some bird safety installations should be developed. The same problems can apply to high altitude wind farms I believe.
ReplyDelete1.What do you think about concept of high-altitude wind power?
I think that this is good solution becouse up there wind is more stronger so it will give the more power
2.What about Google investment. Is it yet another PR trick to be known as company putting its resources into some novel technologies like self-driving cars and wearable devices with not always have a future?
I think that this is only PR trick now a days green energy is more popular and everyone wont to show that he use that kind of power and he is more pro-ecologist
3.What do you think about traditional wind plants ? They are always highly visible in any landscape. Some people like it, others are against saying that is not healthy for people and kills millions of birds.
I like to see that traditional wind plants and I think that this is also another good idea for clean energy but I don't live near that plants so it hard to say that is good idea for people who lives near that plants I think that they can have different opinion:)
What do you think about concept of high-altitude wind power?
ReplyDeleteI think it all come to efficiency, if it will be efficient enough in comparison to traditional energy sources I believe it could be a golden idea, adding of course environment benefits.
What about Google investment. Is it yet another PR trick to be known as company putting its resources into some novel technologies like self-driving cars and wearable devices with not always have a future?
I think that this may be something more that only PR, this may be their way of entering power manufacturing business. And if this idea happens to be ok for the futures they will only strengthen company...
What do you think about traditional wind plants ? They are always highly visible in any landscape. Some people like it, others are against saying that is not healthy for people and kills millions of birds.
I think my answer for this will be similar to the first question, as far as theirs efficiency will be competitive I think it is great idea, but as far as I know it is not so...
For the first and last question - I agree with Artur – when this kind of producing energy will be profitable it will achieve success.
ReplyDeleteThere are very interested solutions in gallery accessible from the last article. I suppose that mass production of energy at high-altitudes will required farms of kites, wings, balloons etc. I don’t know if scientists have a good solution to prevent for twisting connection between these flying objects and ground. But maybe it is not a problem.
Safety mentioned by Wiktor seems to be important for this solution success.
About Google engaging in this business – I agree with Krzysztof and Artur’s explanations that following by ecologist trends and trying to enter into power manufacturing business may be causes for such initiatives.
Sadly, wind at tower height is just not enough to end dependence on burning fossil fuel, so please keep an open mind as we experiment.
ReplyDeleteI believe these approaches offer great potential and should be pursued. Time for private investors to enter in the fray.
There are technical hurdles that have to be scaled but there are a lot of smart people out there. The energy potential is too large to ignore.
May the good governments and the private sector increase their grants for these researches & development. We need this energy!
The idea of acquiring energy using high altitude kite-power generators doesn't feel like a thing that could catch on. It seems that it would require a lot of attention from the personnel and additionally could generate a lot of extra costs (when one of the planes would crash). I highly doubt that such a way can be more cost efficient than a traditional wind power plant, or even the ones that are popular nowadays (nuclear or hydro power plants ) and as many of us already stated, if an innovative way of doing something is not a reduction in costs in comparison to the methods that we already use, why should we make a change?
ReplyDeleteAnother question that arised when I first read this article was: how can this energy be passed to the collectors located on the ground? And in one of the articles that you mentioned I found a line answering my doubt: "with electricity transmitted to the ground via the conducting core of the tether" . So now another thing needs to be beared in mind - these wires cannot cross and this fact leads to some serious logistic problems.
As for Google I don't know what is their business of buying such a company, but I doubt that this is done for an additional source of revenue.
So all in all I'm quite sceptical about this way of acquiring power.
The idea of flying turbines collecting wind power sounds very interesting but it's too early to predict future of this approach. According to the article they completed tests only with small prototype and more experiments must be done to be able to judge the real potential of it.
ReplyDeleteIt may be another PR trick because Google likes to portait itself as an innovative and thinking-forward institution. Ideas like self-driving car or flying generators capture the imagination and allow Google to play a role of groundbreaking company taken straight from the sci-fi movies. Such PR actions doesn't bother me because it encourages people to be open minded and give very positive feelings about creative nature of mankind.
Traditional wind plants remind me always Scandinavia and I prefer this kind of landscapes instead of power station chimneys and highly industrial areas.