Anotherpower.com Forum
Renewable Energy Questions/Discussion => Wind and Hydro => Topic started by: Wolvenar on August 23, 2012, 06:07:07 am
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The machine is probably old news, but it brings to mind a question.
They mention that these may be deployed cheaper in ocean settings.. Maybe initially, but what does maintenance and helium refilling etc cost over it's lifetime compared to costs of a of a normal turbine.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-03/29/altaeros-airborne-wind-turbine (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-03/29/altaeros-airborne-wind-turbine)
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It brings up all kinds of thoughts, both pro, and con. If it can be easily hauled back down with a winch, maybe maintenance wouldn't be so bad.
If it's high enough, it might get rid of the argument that the low frequency sound is harmful.
Anyway, very interesting. Thanks Wolv.
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Yea but in this case it uses a SkyStream :o .
Thurmond
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Interesting concept.... Wonder what FAA, etc thinks about this... And I didn't see it listed, but power/size ratio (or even power output period) .
Seemed someone tried a more ground basis at one time or another... Never heard much else from it...
Steve
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They mention that these may be deployed cheaper in ocean settings.. Maybe initially, but what does maintenance and helium refilling etc cost over it's lifetime compared to costs of a of a normal turbine.
I often wondered why they don't use something like that in the polar regions.
Setting up a tower on compressed snow must be a challange.
A few tanks of helium has got to be cheaper than hauling in barrels of diesel and tanks of propane.
etc.
G-
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Something else just came to mind about this -
That whole geographic thing should probably be REALLY taken into account. Lets say these things perform as designed/intended/etc, and a bunch of them were to be deployed. Over water or large spans of sparse ice, its probably not going to be an issue, but what happens when one of these things catastrophically fails (rotor/blade destruction/fire/whatever) and becomes earthbound? I see that the floatation devices are set up in cells, presumably to mitigate the negative effects of any single cell's failure. But isn't there a such thing as blades shattering into zillions of pieces, leading to more cells failing than it takes to keep it airborn?
Not trying to cut the idea off at the knees, but something about this is just a bit more than a head scratcher. Between planes possibly getting tangled in the tethering, and the risk of a whirling ball of pissed off turbine with an uncontrolled affinity for gravity, I'm not so sure the pros outweigh the cons.
Steve