These things really make my day. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll defiantly be flying one of these over my farm.

This is great stuff, I need to know when and where I can buy one of these MARS units.

How can I invest in Magenn, are you public yet.

I think this is going to be hot once it hits the market.

John

I would think that this kind of technology would be extremely useful in emergency situations such as hurricane Katrina. You could used it to set up field hospitals and other disaster relief stations when the conventional power is out or non existent.

I saw these guys at the PowerGen show in Las Vegas last week (January 6-8th).

I talked to the invetor, Fred Ferguson. Fred has been in airships for the last 25 years. Showed me some pretty impressive pictures of some of his inventions. One that I remember was the Magnus AirShip. Looked like a big rotating golf ball. Fred said it would lift 60,000 lbs to 1000 ft or lift 1000 lbs to 60,000 feet. Worked off of something called the Magnus Effect. See it at http://www.magenn.com/about.php

I have a cottage off grid, I will be first in line to buy one of these 4kW MARS units.

This is such a simple concept, why didn't I think of it.

Up to 1000 ft versus a tradional wind turbine that only goes to 400 ft.

Your right, this would be great device for disaster applications. It would be great for developing nations, island nations (I am from Bermuda where I pay over 40 cents per kilo watt hour). It would also be good for offshore, perhaps attached to a barg or oil rig.

I can see lots of applications.

Congrats to Magenn Power.

A new look at electrical generation! These guys are heading in the right direction with their idea. They can not miss. The potential is just enormous.

If only these had been around during the last few natural disasters.

this is awesome but I still doubt a lot of towns and city's would allow it. I live next to an airport so I doubt I'd be able to fly it even if my county let me.

Except it uses up a non-renewable resource - Helium.
Not very tree-hugger.

Helium comes from natural gas wells located close to uranium ore - the radioactivity transmutes hydrogen into helium over very long (geological) time-frames. We're using up our helium as coolant, bouyant gas and novelty product at a rate that will see globel supplies exhausted in less than 50 years. Once we pull it out of the ground, it leaks away, floats to the top of the atmosphere and is stripped away by the solar winds.

_And_ we're not discriminating between ordinary helium and it's much more valuable isotope, which may be a key component in developing fusion power.

It would be better to use Hydrogen for this application - it can be manufactured at need, and nothing is flammable in the air found at 40,000 feet.

Couldn't they use hydrogen to replace Helium if it is a problem?

Unfortunately there's always the jokers out there with rifles who'd take potshots at it.

I was at the PowerGen show, they said that Hydrogen would actually be a better gas to use versus helium.

Hydrogen is more plentiful, has better lift capabilities and is a lot cheaper to purchase.

Only problem with Hydrogen is the bad press that happened around the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

A Magenn Power rep said Hydrogen would be used outside of North America, and possibly in NA if they could get approvals.

If someone shot at it, the bullets might bounce off, apparently the covering is made of something called Vectran which is like Kevlar (bullet proof vests), stronger then steel.

See: http://www.magenn.com/about.php

I don't think that Magenn Power is public yet, as I couldn't find anything when I did a Google search on them.

I did find an email address for investing information, it is invest@magenn.com

I'm in if they will take my money (well, my husbands money, he makes the green and I invest in green!!)

Joanne

Thanks for the interest. These air rotors are closed structures as opposed to the flat plate structures that constitute a wind turbine. Hence they can be built very very big at low cost. They operate at slow speed using torque as opposed to velocity to provide power. Tip speed is roughly same speed as the wind wheras wind turbines are operatign at up to 9 times the wind speed (hence hard on the birds). Our potential big units will be made of a tested composite woven material that includes three layers and is stronger than equivalent thickness in steel. The helium loss is expected at less that .05 % per month, a small monthly top up and we clean the helium every six months (keeping it for years). Hydogen or Natural gas could be used - but regardless we don't plan on wasting any of the useable gases. (note: all helium even in ground wells eventually perculates off into space since its small structure slowly evaporates through everything.. - but hydrogen is a lot less expensive as a lifting gas. - My personal hope is to see very small units built; back packed size that wil be sold for a few hundred dollars providing a few hundred watts - but better yet, built and donated for disaster relief. The commercial world needs the big ones - but the smallest units should be available to anyone that simply needs the necessity of a bit of power- for heat, light, or communication - by the way the small ones will go straight up in a wind filled with nothing more than air. Due to the Magnus effect - when they rotate lift is generated (like a kite).

Fred Ferguson

This is great, I own a farm and I think this would be perfect for the times my electricity goes out (more then a few times a year).

May be even worth while to keep it running all the time and feed the excess electricity back into the GRID.

Doesn't look like it would hurt birds.

As soon as they go public, I will throw some of my RRSP into it.

OK JOHN OR ANONYMOUS OR ANYONE ELSE WHO WAS AT POWERGEN LAST WEEK! come on! Quit holding out!! ok so not everyone is a fan of the PenWell group because its usually the biggies, and pretty oldschool (nice swag, and food tho), but come on! SPILL THE BEANS! tell us stories, let us in on the fun!! what else did you see there???

...you can't just show up and say "when i was at powergen last week" and not expect someone to tell ya to SPILL THE BEANS!! so come on: get talkin!

oh and Fred: You rock! keep up the great work!
can't wait to see these babies in action!!

OK OK, ClimateShlimate, I saw something else at the PowerGen show that was really cool, but I'm just not sure what I saw.

See: www.planetenergy.com

The inventor is a guy by the name of Johannes Schroetter, "very bright guy". He has invented some type of machine that is best described by going to his site at www.planetenergy.com

I like this idea. A great example of thinking outside the box. Here's a thought, if the company gets permission to use H2 as the lifting gas, then once we see methods of producing H2 at home (for fuel for cars, portable fuel cells, who knows what else), then the home H2 could also be used to replendish a Magenn Air Rotors System.

WOW. This site actually blocked my post because my URL I entered was a competing blog system? Man, talk about anti-free speech.

Really cool idea. The company's web site does not have a FAQ so here are a few concerns:


What is it expected to take to get permission to fly one of these things?

What happens if it breaks loose from the tether?

Is there a point where it has to be reeled in to avoid too strong of a wind or bad weather?

Answers to above questions:

1. What is it expected to take to get permission to fly one of these things?

You will need a NOTAM - Notification to Airman. Basically notify the FAA, and they create a mini no fly zone. Anything over 150 needs to have a light every 50 feet that blinks once per second.

2. What happens if it breaks loose from the tether?

Magenn has incorporated an instant deflate device if the MARS unit breaks loose from the tether or base. A rip cord type device cuts a hole in the envelope and the MARS unit safely floats back to the ground.

3. Is there a point where it has to be reeled in to avoid too strong of a wind or bad weather?

In extremely high winds and hurricane situations it should be reeled or winched back to the ground until the storm is over.

This is totally off topic, but about this planetenergy stuff. Are they claiming to create a perpetual motion machines. I can’t make much out of the website.

The immense fireball that was the Hindenberg was not caused by the hydrogen gas, but by the skin of the airship. The hydrogen quickly rose up and burned off harmlessly in the atmosphere. The skin of the ship was essentially paint varnish, burlap cloth and aluminum powder, all three of which are extremely flammable. So flammable, in fact, that a similar mixture is used in solid rocket boosters!

So the moral of the Hindenberg isn't "don't use hydrogen," it's "don't cover your airship in rocket fuel."

that's a good explanation of the Hindenburg but you can go farther. There were over 100 rigid airships built and almost all crashed & burned. Even those not covered with rocket fuel and filled with helium. Plus the passenger survival rate was pretty amazing compared to modern airplanes. With all it's shortcomings, the Hindenburg had an amazing flight record for a rigid airship. The Hindenburg is famous mostly because the crash was caught on film that has been shown over and over. PS Don't forget about flying into a lightning storm.

Someone mentioned taking pot shots. A bullet would be hot but would probably just go straight thru without igniting hydrogen. It would need to hit metal to cause sparks. A more likely source of ignition would be mafunctioning brushes in the generator or a lightning strike.

You could engineer in a pressure monitor that could page you if it dropped a noticable amount. That would give you early warning of a leak due to bullet holes. Who knows, it might page you quick enough to observe the culprits. Humm, add a security cam to photo them. There is a lot of war history about tethered blimps used as observation platforms. With modern electronics, you aren't adding much weight and you have a handy power source nearby.

My friends and I sometimes play with hydrogen balloons. I can tell you that they are VERY difficult to light. Why? There's no oxygen in them. We shot a dozen bottle rockets into an H2 balloon, they were still burning, bouncing around inside, and popped inside. No boom. When we finally reeled it in and added air with a shopvac, then we were able to blow it up.

Hydrogen is the RIGHT gas to use. Cheaper, renewable, and safe. Heck, you could make it onsite with an electrolysis box if you wanted to. That would be the more renewable way to get it. Purchased hydrogen would probably come from steam reforming or petroleum refining operations.

Magenn Power is getting a lot of requests for information on investing in Magenn Power.

Please email invest@magenn.com

Magenn will then send you a PowerPoint Presentation on Magenn, as well as a 4 page summary.

After the initial contact, if you are still interested, Magenn Power will have you fill in a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and ask you to send it back to Magenn Power.

Once a NDA is signed Magenn will send you a complete Business Plan that describes the identified MARS markets, Magenn executive staff bios, Magenn technology partners, Magenn patent application details, use of funds raised, first customers and distributors, identified investor risks, questions and answers, etc.

Investors are cautioned that statements in the Magenn Business Plan and web site are forward-looking statements and are only predictions, which may differ materially from actual results or future events. All such forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations but involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We urge investors to be warned that these and other important risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in these forward-looking statements.

I thought Magnus effect is directional. Does it provide lift for either way of spin?

Hi fred,

Do you have an online movie of the prototype?

Thanks,

Guy

Hi Fred, i think its awsome,everybody should owne one . Its really great to know that theyll be one of those that can help juring emergencies ,especially after those horrible hurricanes, it could have saved many people . Congrats! hope to see one very soon above my head !!!! Natalie

wow

I am in UK. I live in a row of terraced victorian houses and wondered if this turbine can be used to serve a row of houses. So far, three of us have expressed an interest. can we have one to serve all of us in the row? how do i work this out?
thanks