[Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Terry Blanton
Generating 1 kW/m^2 of kite surface (better than solar!) in a demonstration that will lead to laddermills. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/03/renewableenergy.energy

Re: [Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Jed Rothwell
Google is putting $5 million into this. If they have that kind of money for kites they should invest in cold fusion. I still think laddermill kites are impractical. What are they going to use for the tether? What can stand up to 100 MW?!? Using kites as auxiliary sails on large ships is a

Re: [Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Terry Blanton
Did you look at the Italian company, kitegen.com? They claim they can do gigawatt plants. Has any CF researcher applied for a google.org philanthropic grant? http://google.org/projects.html Terry On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Jed Rothwell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Google is putting $5

Re: [Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Edmund Storms
How many airplanes need to hit a tether or kite to bring the method to an end? How many up and down cycles will the tether survive? How many lightening strikes on a wet tether must occur before the tether breaks? In short, this method has no hope of being practical. Ed Jed Rothwell wrote:

Re: [Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Terry Blanton
Certainly, no less practical than a space elevator. Terry On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Edmund Storms [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How many airplanes need to hit a tether or kite to bring the method to an end? How many up and down cycles will the tether survive? How many lightening strikes on a

Re: [Vo]:Ockels Flies His Kite

2008-08-05 Thread Edmund Storms
Perhaps, however the billions saved by one space elevator are more attractive than the few millions saved by all the kites that could be put up without being a hazard. Besides, a space elevator stays in one place. A lot of kites constantly moving up and down and changing position would be a