----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Wind Turbines
You forget that in order to produce power we must have relative motion
between the rotor and the air. A kiting rotor will give this.
An aircraft, all other things being equal, doesn't "know" whether it's in
the jet stream or in still air. We produce forward motion of the aircraft
*through the air* by an *input* of power, or by gliding - a loss of height
through the air - which may be no loss, or a gain, relative to the ground
if the air is moving up, when the aircraft is said to be "soaring".
I read years ago that there is a region at the edge of the jetstream where
the air is moving up; power could be generated by an aircraft flying here.
Whether enough power to be worthwhile I don't know. and I rather doubt
it.
One would then have the problem of storing the energy captured and moving
it to where it could be useful.
Rather than trying to think of capyring energy where it is heavily
concentrated but very hard to capture I think we would be better off
to work on capturing it where it is cheapest on balance. Wind turbines on
towers are a pretty good compromise for areas with stronger winds.
There are many areas where wind power is the cheapest, or competitive,
especially when we account for the external costs of other energy
sources.
Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Party of Citizens wrote:
While all these serious scientists are at work, the imagineering too
tyempting to pass up. We now have a solar-powered non-piloted airplane
which can stay aloft indefinitely. Imagine aircraft like this with wind
turbines built it and rugged enough to stay aloft in the jet stream and
follow its change in course as well.
POC
[snip]
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