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Energy from High-Altitude Kites
maddmike writes "High altitude kites could produce energy equal to some power stations at a comparable cost without polluting. The technique uses a thing dubbed a 'Laddermill' - a chain of kites attached together to create a loop in the sky more than 5 miles long."
Also what will happen if the cable snaps. They worry about the kite, what about the heavy cables falling and destroying things down here.
With these cables how are they going to fly the kite from the ground ? Will they use turbines from the military planes to blow air ?
Anyone has more information about it ?
-a
Don't worry, if it's successful it's not pollution we'll have to worry about - it'll be the fact that they absorb all the energy of the wind, mess up the climate, and then cause all sorts of weather anomalies. Instead of global warming, we'll have...global "stasis?"
I wonder about what happens if the line breaks.
Reminds me of something I saw when I was a kid. My dad and I were fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. The boat we were in was a 23' center console with twin 135hp engines. If memory serves me (this was some 25+ years ago) the boat would do about 40mph on a flat calm. Anyway... There was a good stiff breeze, good for sailing, kight flying, etc. At one point not too far in the distance we saw an orange kite flying in the sky. It was one of those $1.99 plastic things you can buy in any toy store. Well it didn't take us too long to realize that nobody was flying the kite because they'd have to be in the water given its location, and there weren't any other boats in the area. We decided to investigate (the fish weren't biting) so we headed towards the kite at full-throttle. It took us about 45 minutes but we eventually caught up with the kite. The string had apparently snapped or whoever was flying it had let go of the string. Enough string was dragging in the water to create just enough drag to keep the kite aloft, and the kite was dragging it through the water at a pretty decent speed. If the boat wasn't as fast as it was we probably wouldn't have caught the kite. We figured it could have made it all the way to Europe in a week or so if we let it. (Makes for a good story anyway) But it ended up in our closet instead.
I suppose as long as the kites in this ladder-thingy are designed properly they would continue to fly upright. But unless they have enough drag (like the string in my little tale) I'd suspect that the wind would just blow it out of the sky if the line were to break.