Kirk McLoren wrote: > Sometimes engineering proposals are just gee whiz stuff. Just to show > that you are capable of thinking outside the box. They don't have to > have much to do with practicality. The hazard to air navigation is > enough to scuttle this idea let alone the liability considerations of > falling stuff. Just try to erect a tower and see the restraints and > then imagine what would happen should you decide you want to hang this > apparatus several km in the sky. > > We used to have sayings to describe this -- Such as "Here's a neat > idea --Course it's as practical as airbrakes on an ant but still > neat". Well, megawatt turbines way up in the sky would qualify as one > of these. Neat.
You may be dismissing this a little too easily Kirk. Since the jetstream is pretty much everywhere this is something that could be put in the middle of nowhere. It's not hard to imagine such a turbine being "flown" in the middle of the desert, for example, where there isn't anyone for miles around. IIRC, the article in PopSci had motor-generators onboard and they used them as motors to get them up into the jetstream. No balloon necessary. I think the technical problems can be solved. I'm not entirely sure it's a good idea. I'm also much less than sure that it can be an economical source of power. --- David > > Kirk > > */TarynToo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>/* wrote: > > > On Sep 11, 2005, at 3:43 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I suspect that large arrays of wind farms would have an effect > similar > > to forests. We've chopped down a lot of forests over tha last few > > hundred > > years, so this doesn't worry me. > > > > Tidal power would slow the earth's rotation a little faster than > it is > > slowing anyway from friction - probably not a big deal. > > > > Removing a significant fraction of energy from say the Gulf Stream > > strikes me as asking for trouble. > > > > Regarding jet streams, I would be worried if it were possible. They > > wiggle around so much that I can't imagine any practical method of > > tapping their energy. > > I remember some blue sky stuff that proposed wind turbines hanging > from > high altitude balloons, anchored by long tethers. I suppose the > tethers > were supposed to carry current to the ground, though I'm now > struck by > the weight of a few miles of high tension copper or aluminum line. As > far as staying in the jet stream, It seems like it would be > trivial to > design a self-steering system like that used for singlehand > sailing. If > the tether's anchor points were far enough apart, the system could > probably swing a few miles north and south and around a hundred > degrees > or more of the compass, tracking the strongest winds. I think the jet > stream shifts hundreds of miles, so I don't know what that would be > worth. > > Anyway it was this kind of big scale extraction that seemed like it > could have devastating consequences. Of course you'd need millions of > acres of ground level turbines to extract the kind of energy that a > wind farm hanging in the jet stream might capture. > > But I remember reading about this and the proposals to hang big > blades > in the gulf stream and thinking, "Oh Jeez! Another massive > engineering > project with wildly unpredictable side effects! > > Taryn > http://ornae.com/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 > messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Yahoo! for Good > Watch the Hurricane Katrina Shelter From The Storm concert > <http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/shelter> > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >Biofuel mailing list >Biofuel@sustainablelists.org >http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
