Project makani fantastic new wind power concept from google

pop_gun

This idea could scale up. Although I wonder what the energy transmission loses are. As good as this idea is, energy storage
is still a big problem.

On another video I saw, a MIT scientist was saying these floating turbines could be used for direct energy where needed. So that might mitigate the storage problem. :j

jamesd

cells wrote: »

Their much smaller size and materials would mean these can be mass produced far easier than huge wind turbines

Looks fantastic

Looks like a lot of eyesores to me, raising them so they are even more prominent and visually intrusive.

Generali

jamesd wrote: »

Looks like a lot of eyesores to me, raising them so they are even more prominent and visually intrusive.

Probably better than having the North Sea coast starting at Romford or something.

No matter how many times I read the headline I read it as project Mankini.

cells

jamesd wrote: »

Looks like a lot of eyesores to me, raising them so they are even more prominent and visually intrusive.

At a distance you wouldn't see the teather or the ground structure so it would look like a circling bird.

also its about 1/10th the size of a similar output wind turbine

cells

pop_gun wrote: »

This idea could scale up. Although I wonder what the energy transmission loses are. As good as this idea is, energy storage
is still a big problem.

On another video I saw, a MIT scientist was saying these floating turbines could be used for direct energy where needed. So that might mitigate the storage problem. :j

The higher the capacity factor of a tech the less the storage needs and the more capable it is of achieving a highery portion of the grid.

these are supposed to be 60% CF which is considerably higher than onshirey ir offshore wind and much higher than PV

stator

Can't see it working. Too many moving parts and potential for crashes. Plus you couldn't pack them together or they would get tangled with each other. Wind turbines as much as I hate them look far more sensible.

paddyrg

stator wrote: »

Can't see it working. Too many moving parts and potential for crashes. Plus you couldn't pack them together or they would get tangled with each other. Wind turbines as much as I hate them look far more sensible.

May not work in densely populated UK, but there are huge expanses of nothing very much around the world - Saudi and Abu Dhabi have an awful lot of desert in between the oil wells; Australia has masses of barren nothing much...

Crashes would not be a great issue if there's nothing to crash with, if they were spaced to avoid tangling. If the leccy is cheap enough, it pays for the maintenance costs and then some. The experimental designs may get simplified/optimised, the parts would get cheaper with volume, and smaller parts are much cheaper to install and transport than massive turbine blades.

I suspect they'll find a niche, and Google clearly do, too.

cells

paddyrg wrote: »

May not work in densely populated UK, but there are huge expanses of nothing very much around the world - Saudi and Abu Dhabi have an awful lot of desert in between the oil wells; Australia has masses of barren nothing much...

Crashes would not be a great issue if there's nothing to crash with, if they were spaced to avoid tangling. If the leccy is cheap enough, it pays for the maintenance costs and then some. The experimental designs may get simplified/optimised, the parts would get cheaper with volume, and smaller parts are much cheaper to install and transport than massive turbine blades.

I suspect they'll find a niche, and Google clearly do, too.

Lots of people seem to think these would crash and are thus not suitable anywhere near anything. Strikes me as odd considering aeroplanes and helicopters fly into mega cities by the thousands daily like london without that worry but a structure with eight electric motors (more reliable and more redundancy) is expected to crash??


anyway the reason I posted about this project is because I believe it truly has the capability to work not only unsubsidised but also work at a price that under cuts existing paid off coal and gas plants. That is to say electricity truly chepaer than anything else.

I wish them luck it looks a very promising workable idea

patman99

Give it another 10 years and we may well have thorium reactors up and running.
That's the tech the Chinese are going for.

Generali

cells wrote: »

Lots of people seem to think these would crash and are thus not suitable anywhere near anything. Strikes me as odd considering aeroplanes and helicopters fly into mega cities by the thousands daily like london without that worry but a structure with eight electric motors (more reliable and more redundancy) is expected to crash??


anyway the reason I posted about this project is because I believe it truly has the capability to work not only unsubsidised but also work at a price that under cuts existing paid off coal and gas plants. That is to say electricity truly chepaer than anything else.

I wish them luck it looks a very promising workable idea

Definitely a flier (pun intended) in Aus where we have huge amounts of middle of nowhere. You could probably fly a load of them from this place:

http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/