Comments on: Super Efficient Floating Wind Turbines from Magenn

By: shahramkel

shahramkel — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:42:00 +0000

Whole lot of cynicism above. This idea sounds terrific, especially for emergency power. Obviously there are issues. I\’m sure they can be overcome.

By: Scotty O

Scotty O — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:36:47 +0000

How are the FAA lights connected? Do the tethers light up light christmas lights? Not a very realist prototype, neat, but not realistic.

By: Scotty O

Scotty O — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:11:00 +0000

How do they stay in place, No stabilization, what a mythical beast?

By: Rayray

Rayray — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:07:18 +0000

A sailboat can sail at Hull Spead in a storm under “Bare poles” or just the mast, no sails. Make like metal bristlls on the edges to form a fariday cage so it cant get hit by lightning. Or put out a rod to harness the strike. Ben Franklin’s Kite. Is thsia no fly zone. I hope?

By: Bio-nut

Bio-nut — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:54:02 +0000

What would the price per Killowatt hour be for operation and maintenance?

By: dennis_walker

dennis_walker — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:20:04 +0000

I can see much running in circles with few resolutions. i look at the future and i see people with broad knowledge of wind turbines, their impacts on cultures and environments, prioritizing needs, being funded. They might be called “wind Prospectors” what if we had a free power source in haiti right now to produce healthy food, how about darfur with security to provide clean water? how many people die each day because there is no energy to drill for clean water, o.k. some places impractible, but the no.s are in the thousands daily and i know acess to energy can shape a world to be a safer, better place. could turbines be blended in to a environment so as to be almost invisible and yet safe and enviro safe too. there is no end to the wind because the planet earth revolves 24thousand miles (rough) in 24 hours, do the math. that velocity creates a lot of wind
in manyplaces namaste truth seekers and wind prospectors and children of God

By: iahawa

iahawa — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:26:42 +0000

Send it to the red planet for power

By: mitch

mitch — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:21:23 +0000

There might be issues with air travel.. What if the energized tether snaps? I think towers are a better idea. Besides, we already have mountains and other windy places to position them.

I you like unconventional wind/solar power schemes check out the Australian Wind Chimney at:
http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2004/08/solar-chimney.html

By: Lennergy

Lennergy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:54:39 +0000

I like to se this WHEN it´s up there, ok. How much is the weight of the cable down to the earth? The more power the havier cables, the weight of this cable will be at least 10 kilo per meter (times 3 kilo per meter), count and finde out your selfe, ok. And the “swinging positions”, how to control this? How about the airplaine?
Show me, thank´s. And Good luck.
Leo Mac Ender

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:56:10 +0000

k i looked at their webpage and they mention disaster relief and portability. i agree with those points. this -so far- does not seem like it will be able to fill the wind farm goal that they are also mentioning. all this floating stuff seems so dangerous and tanglely.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:53:28 +0000

yea unfortunately im with tripdadd (wow ive always wanted to say that!)

i can see these things twisting and being driven to the ground. we all know that they will never float straight up like the renderings show. but there is some possibility for these things. maybe if they are put together in a frame sort of like one of those old bead calculator things in the Flintstones.

Im trying to figure out where these would be most useful. My first thought was out at sea for research labs like in The Life Aquatic. Then I thought of Antarctica. Major weather problems with both though. I think a major drawback with this system is the amount of wire needed. Are they using copper cause thats expensive… Someone said something about industrial electric wire. Maybe if thats stainless steel you might be able to get double duty out of it.

By: macrumpton

macrumpton — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:17:03 +0000

I used to have a kite that was shaped very similarly to this and it flew quite well even without any helium inside, so I am pretty sure this should work even better. Actually I just googled \”rotor kite\” and here is a video of a prototype of the magen on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ZFcKnP2AM

By: bpg131313

bpg131313 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:32:14 +0000

While I can see issues with this technology, I would hope the designers would be able to capitalize on storms and high wind speeds rather than worry about them. Storms are nothing more than energy, and we need to design systems that capture that energy as best as possible rather than worry about it. Some may take what I wrote to mean that I want it to harness the power of a lightning strike. That’s not what I mean, but there has to be a way to get all the energy possible out of a storm rather than worry about the systems when one approaches.

By: tripdaddy

tripdaddy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:46:42 +0000

nice concept but totally impractical. The wind needed to spinn them will bounce them around and twist them up. they will not be striaght above the anchor point. they will be also have to support the larger cable weight. While they may be more efficient they need lots more room so you will have fewer of them in the same space.
I see them floating a lot like a kite.

By: telix

telix — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:23:08 +0000

If they ever begin producing viable carbon nanotube tethers for commercial use(think space elevator), I could think of nothing better. I would put multiple turbines on one tether forcing them apart somehow, that way when the winds change, they move as one and don’t become entangled. Also, make the tether retractable so that in higher winds it can be lowered to keep the power input/risk to device constant at lower altitudes only to be raised back up afterwards.