"There is enough energy in high altitude winds to
power civilization 100 times over."
Altaeros Buoyant
Air Turbine 1
Giant donut or some type of new helium filled
balloon that kids love to have, that is perhaps your first gut feeling about
what Altaeros Energies has created. BAT that's what they call it (short for
buoyant air turbine). Its “unmanned, helium filled, cylindrical blimp wrapped
around three fine spinning blades" turning winds into electricity .Designed by a group of graduates in Greentown
Labs Somerville, Massachusetts. Main purpose of BAT is to capture high attitude
winds which are stronger and steadier.
Why High Attitude Winds??
Winds at 2,000-1,000 Feet are the largest
untapped renewable resources in the world. According to Prof. Ken Caldeira of
Carnegie Institute of science at Stanford University published a research
concluded that:
“There is enough energy in high altitude winds to
power civilization 100 times over.”
Average
Power density at Caribou
Source
Altaeros Energies
P = (1/3)pv^3
Power output of wind turbine depends on both the
velocity of Fluid (air) and density of fluid. At higher attitude winds become
consistent and average around twice the velocity, with power density increase
five to eight times.
Comparing with conventional wind turbines, that
are geographically dependent, high capital and maintains costs, static position
should be maintained and turbine may cause noise and damage wildlife, BAT is
more than a turbine.
Electricity
for remote areas
Experts offer three reasons why airborne wind
turbine might work to remote areas
·
They are simple portable.
·
They are
computer controlled, requiring no
onboard pilot few operators
·
No expensive infrastructure such as power
stations.
Benefits
In addition to generating lower cast energy for
remote areas, turbines could serve as source of internet connectivity and
cellphone networking .They also give weather updates to the community.
·
High
Power Capacity
At 600 Meter BAT generates twice the energy
similarly to conventional mounted turbines.
·
Siting
and Impact
Geographical Independent as those areas where
ground winds are low quality BAT can work and also have less human and
environment interactions
·
Automated
and Reliable Operation
·
Low
Cost
Installation and transport costs reduce to 90%.
·
Rapid
Mobility and Installation
·
Additional
features
Along with Power generation act as source of
Internet connectivity and Cellphone services, weather updater for community.
Xahid Nawaz
The author is a junior at Faculty of Mechanical Engineeing, GIKI. He writes about current trends in Renewable Energy. He can be reached at fb.com/xahid17
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