Flying Windmills
by on 03.28.05
Here is a possible answer to the questions raised in Saturday's :: Where will the turbines be - 30,000 feet up in the jetstream where the wind is strong and steady. Tethered windmills will rise like helicopters when power is put into them, and then stay up like autogyros spinning in the wind, generating power and sending it down the tether.
the designers, Sky Windpower Corporation, envision clusters with as many as 600 units, generating as much as 12,000 megawatts, far more than your typical nuclear plant. They point out that such systems could easily generate enough power to produce hydrogen through electrolysis.
Worried about airplances being diced and sliced instead of birds? The designers point out that there already are lots of tethered balloons that pilots have learned to avoid- along the US/ Mexican border looking for drug smugglers.
This treehugger is more worried about one of them breaking down and falling- The designers suggest that they be placed near cities but also over uninhabited areas- that's a bit of a contradiction in most of North America- there is almost always somebody down there. :: Sky Windpower Corporation thanks to :: Lawrence Solomon by [LA]
The power grid in rural areas can not yet handle pumping the extra MW to the cities. Until that is handled, any large windfarms must be near or over urban areas. But is that all bad? In its early years, a Dupont gunpowder factory manager was required to have he and his family live on the grounds: you bet it was kept safe.
How are they going to get the corn up and the flour down?
Oh, hang on, maybe they're not wind mills. Maybe they don't mill corn into flour. Maybe you should learn to stop saying mill when you mean turbine. Maybe people will learn they are a modern power station for generating electricity. And stop confusing them with medieval technology for grinding corn into flour.
Nah. Using the correct words will help people accept wind fuel and you don't want that. Keep saying mill and keep us in the Dark Ages.
Fly 'em over the ocean. If they fall, put airbags on 'em so they float when they hit the water. Put them near desalinization plants to power the pumps bringing water inland.
Jerome
Hey, this story made Wired only about a week later. ;-)
http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,67121,00.html