LexDec 9, 2024
Chris Adams

Y'know that #solarpunk trope of floating wind turbines in the sky, tethered to the ground, and feeding power down to denizens below?

This is in China, serving 50KW at 500m, which is power for between 40 to 140 households.

The figure changes depending on which country you use. USA is around ~1KW per house, and in Europe it's closer to 300-400W on average).

I wonder what the economics are like for these. I you have seen numbers, do plz share.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202410/12/WS6709ce66a310f1265a1c7306.html

China's self-developed airship harvests wind power at record height

China's domestically developed buoyant airborne turbine (BAT) reached a record height on Thursday in central China's Hubei Province, harnessing stronger, steadier winds from higher altitudes to generate power.

Dec 9, 2024 at 8:30amIvory for Mac
Show threadabovearthDec 9, 2024

@mrchrisadams
Tangentially related to this topic.

I heard years ago of an idea of having a horizontal wind turbine, so oriented like a helicopter, up in the air. It had to somehow self balance by adjusting the blade angle. And stay up in the air. It seemed like something that is either really hard to do, or impossible to me. I never heard about it since.

#windturbine #helicopter

Show threadgomliDec 9, 2024

@abovearth @mrchrisadams
It's the principle of a statically wired gyroplane ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_330
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 - Wikipedia

Show threadabovearthDec 10, 2024
@gomli
Oh yeah that does work, with the forward speed provided by a steady wind at altitude. I get it now, thanks!   
@mrchrisadams
Show threadvoltar13Dec 9, 2024
@mrchrisadams
Pretty interesting. I think that these might be great for an ad-hoc power, however it will be interesting to see how the durability and fixability compares to the regular wind turbines for regular long-term use.
Show threadMmmmDec 9, 2024
@mrchrisadams 50 KW of power? For comparison, an electrical kettle uses 1 KW of power. If 50 people simultaneously decide to have a tea, they'll have a blackout. Unless they completely spam the sky with those balloons. But a typical city has hundreds of thousands of kettles.
Show threadChris AdamsDec 9, 2024

@photom I'm using figures from groups like OFGEM (the UK regulator) who track energy usage by households over the year.

I used average figures over the year, because most people don't run kettles all at the same time, all 8760 hours of the year. More below:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/average-gas-and-electricity-usage

Average gas and electricity usage

Information on average gas and electricity usage and how it is calculated.

Ofgem
Show threadPasswordsarehard4Dec 9, 2024
@photom @mrchrisadams you could use a battery. It’s called grid storage and it’s all the rage in renewables. The alternative is to make little “teatime zones” so everyone is spaced out, how are your people at the queue?
Show threadDror BedrackDec 9, 2024
@mrchrisadams it produces 50 kw. I pay localy 0.15$ for kwh. So this machine would make 7.5$ an hour.
180$ a day
65700$ a year
I'm not sure it pays for the maintanance. But cool concept.