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The Highest-Flying Wind Turbine
Daniel_Stuckey writes: "In far-flung rural Alaska, where electricity can cost as much as $1 per kilowatt hour — more than 10 times the national average, according to the New York Times — a wind turbine encased in a giant helium balloon is about to break a world record. The Bouyant Air Turbine (BAT) is about to be floated 1,000 feet into the air in the name of cleaner, cheaper, and mobile energy. That single airborne grouper—it's sort of a hybrid of a blimp, a kite, and a turbine—will power over a dozen homes. The BAT is the brainchild of Altaeros, a company founded by MIT alumni, and, if everything goes according to plan, it's going to be the highest-flying power generator in history. Since winds blow stronger and more consistently the higher above the ground you go, and the hovering BAT harnesses that gale and sends electricity down to earth through the high-strength tethers that also hold the machine steady. "
This can never scale due to helium scarcity. While even low-quality helium would undoubtedly work for this application, the quantities required to build these at scale would drive the price through the roof.
No. Every single person involved in this is an idiot.
No. It didn't occur to ANY of those MIT alumni, their backers, their consultants, or anyone.
You are literally the first person to mention it.
They'd be f***ed without slashdot.
They claim it is the highest flying power generator, but conveniently omit the ISS.
yes, and the answer is - high voltage
Why not hot air? Surely they can mount an electric heat generator if it's going to be producing the stuff anyway. Then they can also regulate the balloons altitude on the fly.
Is the ISS flying? Nope. It's not lighter than air either. Apples & Oranges.
There is a war going on for your mind.
"Not in my backyard!" squealeth the rich in Hollywood and Martha's Vinypard.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
All this means is that it takes four seconds (5 GJ / 1.21 GW) to travel through time.
yeah sure... let's just bash it before it gets anywhere.... so many planes and birds in the fucking frozen deserts of Alaska.... let's go oil mmurica!!
And yet this team of MIT alumni is still going ahead with their project after 18 months of research and $1.3 million spent. Funny that.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Voyager isn't flying.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci...
Ahh, Slashdot: where the few ACs who (might) actually have a point are sure to make up for it by just being assholes for no apparent reason.
Oh and any enemy wanting to take out your power or know where you are would just find and shoot down the flippin' blimp and then you ...
... fire up your diesel generator?
The military is already flying blimps in combat zones, typically sensor platforms to give good 'eye in the sky' intel for a base and it's surrounding area. Also, it's more difficult than you think to target something that's pretty far up in the sky, and if insurgents/terrorists have that capability I'm more worried about them targetting manned aircraft with that capability than trying to take out a floating generator.
Meanwhile getting diesel fuel to bases located within combat zones is expensive and dangerous. To the point that something like this would be justified at the point it's avoided it's mass in diesel fuel burned, which shouldn't take all that long, really.
Back on the civilian side, same concept with remote Alaska needs - some areas the diesel fuel needs to be flown in, and that's rather expensive.
I don't read AC A human right