[Kylon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_w ... ated_costs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitegen

I thought this would be a good thing to post.

This might be a possible solution to the energy mix. I mean if these worked as efficiently, and cost as little as estimated, then mass production of these could increase the power supply, which would increase economic growth.

Another advantage, is that if the weather becomes more extreme, that might increase the turbulence in the winds and wind speeds.

If that were to happen, there would be even more energy available.

Another major advantage would be that this power source is renewable, and could last as long as the wind blows.


What does everyone think of this?

[SeaGypsy]

Yep, this article goes into more depth than the wiki articles linked. There has been some chatter about trying this out in central Australia for a couple of years. I'm not aware of it getting beyond experimental stage anywhere as yet, but as you suggest, it has some potential.

Using 28 years of weather data, the researchers developed the first-ever global survey of high-altitude wind energy.

"We found the highest wind power densities over Japan and eastern China, the eastern coast of the United States, southern Australia, and north eastern Africa," said researcher Cristina Archer, an atmospheric scientist at California State University in Chico.

These specific areas generate roughly 10 kilowatts per square meter or more. "This is unthinkable near the ground, where even the best locations have usually less than one kilowatt per square meter," Archer added.

The analysis also looked at some of the world's largest cities: Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Mexico City. New York proved a prime location, as did the East Asian cities.

"For cities that are affected by polar jet streams such as Tokyo, Seoul and New York, the high-altitude resource is phenomenal," Archer said. "New York, which has the highest average high-altitude wind power density of any U.S. city, has an average wind power density of up to 16 kilowatts per square meter."

http://www.livescience.com/9661-powerfu ... icity.html

[Novus]

These things were talked about in Popular Science a decade ago. They were a joke then and they are joke now.

[SeaGypsy]

Na, the joke is parked in your driveway and in most people here's driveway, or carport for the more affluent.

[Laromi]

Not exactly a wind use reply but NBF, (address below) as I recollect, has something on wind generation prospects in Europe, Norway I think.

June 20, 2011: "Keith Henson describes low-cost access to space and meeting future energy needs Writer Keith Henson has extensively studied space-based solar power issues. Henson recently published a proposal to reduce the cost of getting payload to orbit by orders of magnitude. In an interview with Sander Olson, Henson describes using skylon rocket planes to release payloads at high altitudes. Concentrated lasers would then heat hydrogen in the payload, providing thrust and propelling the payload into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Henson believes that this scheme could reduce launch costs to $100 per kilogram, and could make space-based solar power cost effective and feasible".

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/06/keith- ... ccess.html

[pedalling_faster]

These things were talked about in Popular Science a decade ago. They were a joke then and they are joke now.

kite gen is in limited production & being deployed around the globe.

it's just a sliver of total world electricity production - maybe that's the joke part you're referring to.

but wind generation, whether offshore on towers, land-based, or airborne/ kite based, is a growing sector of electricity production.

one of the recently profiled entrepreneurs was some guy in Italy with his version of airborne. it is quite real, quite scale-able, and profitable or close to it. plus that R&D/limited production effort is likely to continue even if we get a repeat of the 2008/9 financial crises, i.e. his funding is solid.

[Poordogabone]

You can't harvest efficiently the very wind that keeps you airborne. Also the weight of the transmission cable would be a major problem if you're talking of really getting some altitude were the high winds are. Unbelievable that some people are actually getting paid to think of and design those non starter projects.

[SeaGypsy]

Sorry but you don't know what you are talking about. 10+ kwh per m2 is more than enough to keep 1 m2 airborne. A super fit cyclist produces .2 of 1 kwh, yet can and have powered aircraft over the English chanel.
Get real or keep cruising in your highly realistic SUV.

[Madpaddy]

I imagine you could have the generator suspended off a helium balloon so the lighter than air gas is keeping the apparatus airborne while the generator harnesses the full power of the wind.

[davep]

You can't harvest efficiently the very wind that keeps you airborne. Also the weight of the transmission cable would be a major problem if you're talking of really getting some altitude were the high winds are. Unbelievable that some people are actually getting paid to think of and design those non starter projects.

When I read about the Italian project a couple of years ago it seemed to be promising. I don't think it really needs to be very efficient as the overall surface area can be huge (far higher than wind turbines with more consistent winds).

[lowem]

They were also talking about the blimp idea a while back, but as usual, the problem with many of these ideas is that of scale.