11–20 of 41 posts
I wonder how closely these can be deployed? Safe operation might require large distances between base stations. If they can't beat conventional wind mills in power per area, that may be a deal breaker in many scenarios.
You can put them in the water with just an anchored buoy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can put them in the water with just an anchored buoy.
Then you have to connect them all with sea cables, those add up if you need another km for every base you install.
edit: oh you mean for the electricity, yes...
I think I am missing something here, because I don't quite get how the wind does continual work on the device to generate power. I mean, at the start the device goes downwind unreeling a tether, so it is pulling on the tether and doing work, so far so good. Then it reaches the maximum extent and... starts more or less staying where it is, staying aloft? Okay. But it's not systematically moving, so no longer doing wor…
If it's anything like some ocean wave generators, it might be able to generate power when moving in either direction, but I'm not sure about that.
It looks like a lot of the cost and complexity is to allow takeoff and landing. Is anyone working on a system where the flying part never lands? You presumably have to supply some energy to keep it aloft on windless days, but that might be cheaper than landing gear.
I wonder how closely these can be deployed? Safe operation might require large distances between base stations. If they can't beat conventional wind mills in power per area, that may be a deal breaker in many scenarios.
I think I am missing something here, because I don't quite get how the wind does continual work on the device to generate power. I mean, at the start the device goes downwind unreeling a tether, so it is pulling on the tether and doing work, so far so good. Then it reaches the maximum extent and... starts more or less staying where it is, staying aloft? Okay. But it's not systematically moving, so no longer doing wor…
That's effectively what these technologies are doing.
In point of fact, all of the blades on a commercial wind turbine are shaped like wings, such that the reaction force of the air flowing over the wing acts to drive the wing in the direction of motion and adds a drag force away from the tether.
In the classical tower arrangement, you extract energy by opposing the rotation of the blade about the tower. In the energy kite arrangement, you extract energy by running the "propellors" in reverse as generators to oppose the forward thrust.
Cleantechnica had a writer who spent some time taking a closer look at the claims made by companies in this space, a couple of links: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/21/rip-google-makani-perha... https://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/19/googles-makani-regulato...
