Magenn Power has been testing its airship-based wind turbines— the company hopes to prove that its “air rotor system” will work. The Canadian startup has named the system MARS. It consists of a blimp that is tethered to the ground, and rotates horizontally in the wind, generating electricity. According to Greentech Media, the blimp is designed to float between 600 and 1000 feet above the ground, and its intended to produce power capacities ranging from 10 kilowatts to several megawatts.
The MARS can be filled with any lighter-than-air gas, including hydrogen, methane and argon, to lift it above the tree line. The company will come out of the gates with a 100-kilowatt model aimed at remote industrial sites, such as offshore oil rigs and mining operations, before expanding into commercial markets.
Other companies are pursuing airborne wind power. California’s Sky WindPower Corp. and Kite Gen Research of Italy have also designed “high-altitude” wind systems that are tethered to the ground. Another California venture, Makani Power, raised $10 million from Google.org in 2006 to help develop a kite system that taps winds in the jet stream.
Via: Greentech Media
Dear Sir,
I live in country that is facing severe energy crisis these days(Pakistan).Please keep me posted about this air rotor system.
Regards
Arbab Bilal Ahmad
Peshawar
iv never herd of them
You just did
it is simply a wonder ….
simple but amply awesome
I live in pakistan where, these days, we are subjected to load shedding 6-12 hours per day. Mind you this is a country where summer temperatures range between 42 – 49 degrees Celsius.
If these companies can develop some sort of an affordable home based wind energy system then the market potential can be tremendous.
But must be affordable though.
I would like to know more about this, I’m not able to get on the web site if you could please e-mail me with more information
Very interesting. If you’d like to learn more about potential developments in the wind power industry, you should check out the Renewable Energy Finance Forum, held June 18-19 in New York City. One of the event sessions will feature representatives from GE, NordBank, and JPMorgan in a discussion about the future for wind power investment and development. In addition, the event will feature 40 other high profile industry leaders speaking about such topics as solar power, biofuels, and economic and policy factors fueling the industry.
For more information, visit http://www.REFFWallStreet.com.
While they are putting up large solar farms in desert areas they could use some of these to give some 24h power while using the maintenance roads and transmission lines that will be needed for the solar farms anyway. Small solar powered communications pods on the tethers could provide meteorological data, do laser measurements for seismic studies, fire robot bees at UFO investigators… you know – whatever you might want to have done in the desert.
These scientist are truly creative. Almost every day we can hear about new ideas of how to generate renewable energy. This example is one of them and I think, it is going to take some time to produce practical, well tested and well working product.