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Windmills in the Sky

Posted by michael on from the don-kee-ho-tay dept.

An Anonymous Coward sent in: "The BBC is reporting on works of an Australian scientist who has been developing flying turbines that use the stable jet stream at 4.5 km altitude to generate electricity and send it back to the ground via cables."

1 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Problems by Anoriymous+Coward · · Score: 4

    The cables would have to be awfully thick (hence heavy) to transmit a decent amount of power 3 miles. Then you're wasting power just keeping them up in the sky.

    I imagine Australians don't worry too much about stuff falling out of the sky - Skylab & Mir both missed - but I think other, more populated, countries would have a hard time implementing this. Regardless, you have yet more transmission costs once you get to the ground (although obviously this is a problem with well known solutions).

    The jet stream is stable because it is uninterrupted. One wind farm isn't going to change that. Put enough of them up there, though, and you're going to change weather patterns.

    It's a nice idea, but I don't see it being terribly practical.

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