Wind turbine blimp aims to replace diesel generators

Yahoo ^ | 4/20/12 | Randy Nelson - Tecca

[NormsRevenge]

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird… it's a plane… it's a… wind turbine? Altaeros Energies, a Massachusetts-based company formed by MIT and Harvard grads, has aimed high — literally — in its quest to deliver power to remote, off-the-grid locations, creating a blimp that harnesses the power of the wind at 1,000 feet up.

The prototype, seen in this video, is a large helium-filled shell that looks almost like a jet engine (or, as we suspect more than a few people thought when it was tested in Maine earlier this year, a UFO). Attached to a trailer on the ground, it automatically deploys itself 1,000 feet in the air (350 feet for its inaugural test flight) where a fan at its center is turned by the wind. At this altitude, the wind is not only stronger than at ground level, but also much steadier, resulting in twice the energy production of a traditional, pole-mounted turbine.

The electricity generated by the turbine is sent down to the trailer via the tether cables, where it can be used to power remote villages, military outposts, or anywhere that would normally have to depend on polluting diesel generators. When it's not in use, it can be automatically reeled in.

[NormsRevenge]

No joyriding!

[NormsRevenge]

There’s a lot of money flying around in the unharnessed wind market or so I hear.. including some of yours.. ;-]

[Jack Hydrazine]

“resulting in twice the energy production of a traditional, pole-mounted turbine.”

Would adding a pole dancer make it more competitive?

[Paladin2]

"..it can be used to power remote villages, military outposts, or anywhere that would normally have to depend on polluting diesel generators..."

Except when the wind isn't blowing.

[mylife]

I don’t know what the cost of this system would be, but it does make some sense in that the blimp could be raised or lowered into wind streams.
Terra fixed turbines are at the mercy of wind conditions on the ground.

[JRandomFreeper]

I'd rather have a powdered coal fueled diesel. At least you can count on it, if you can keep it in working order and have coal.

/johnny

[palmer]

Wind is never a problem with one of these since it can be attached to a truck and pulled around.

[mylife]

Some of the operating costs could be offset with advertising ☺

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NormsRevenge.

Popular Science publishes something about this or something very like it every few years, presumably when the (alleged) brains behind this operation starts making the rounds again. “Future airborne wind turbines could spin with greater gusto in the faster winds found at high altitudes, and send power back to Earth...”

Blimp Power
Alternative-energy firm starts testing its innovative airborne wind turbines
By Gregory Mone Posted 05.13.2008
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-05/blimp-power

[mylife]

LOL!

[NonValueAdded]

"So there I was, sitting out by the pool watching the kids swim, when this shadow approached. Soon I could see it, this huge blimp-like thing trailing two black cables that were dragging on the ground. Sparks flew from where ever they touched. I screamed for the kids to get out of the pool but it was too late. There was a huge flash and then a stark silence. I will remember it as long as I live."

The plot of a bad horror flick? Perhaps, but I hope the team working on the fail-safe design have such an imagination.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Wind is never a problem with one of these since it can be attached to a truck and pulled around.

Now that, is some of the whitiest sarcasm I've seen in a while.

Well done!

[upchuck]

Altaeros Energies says that while the power its blimp provides costs more than getting it from the grid, it's actually more affordable than from generators that require a constant supply of gasoline, not to mention greener.

Assuming, of course, the wind is blowing. And therein lies the number one problem with wind turbines: there's no easy, cost effective, way to store the output. Solar panels have the same problem at night.

Personally I think all this "green" alternative power stuff is sorta cool. Just don't use my tax dollars to fund it.

[Clay Moore]

Wind power, the clean energy!

[almost done by half]

"Except when the wind isn't blowing."

And nobody steals the copper wiring on the ground.

[taterjay]

In the late 70s Peabody Coal Co. had an idea to use a balloon to hold the electric cables going to the shovel. It did not last long, as the weather took it out. I expect the same to happen here.

[Deaf Smith]

" It did not last long"

Or
"Betcha a beer you couldn't hit that there blimp thingy." Aims rifle.

[JRandomFreeper]

Personally I think all this "green" alternative power stuff is sorta cool. Just don't use my tax dollars to fund it.

It is cool technology. And when faced with US$20K to run power to my shack in NM, US$6K didn't seem so bad. The ROI numbers changed quickly.

As for your second point.... AMEN! NO TAX DOLLARS! SINK OR SWIM.

Solar makes sense in some cases. My shack in the mountains was one.

Here in suburbia? Oh heck no!

I couldn't make payments on a 2% loan for what I pay TXU for 'lektrikity.

/johnny

[RedMonqey]

I can envison one of these things break loose in high winds, continuing to generate electricity as it loses altitude and discharge its’ load on whatever(or whoever)unfortunate enough to come into contact with it’s dragging cable line.

An mobile electric chair, if you may.

[JRandomFreeper]

Passes over beer.

/johnny