I wrote:
I expect the average typhoon would make mincemeat of the Stirling solar devices I have seen on the web.
I have a photo taken years ago of the effects of an ordinary typhoon in Japan. Two concrete telephone poles are snapped in half. These are steel-reinforced concrete polls, at least a foot in diameter at the base. Jones Beene described setting up one of the Infinia small stirling gadgets: "I can set a post in concrete." So can I, but if the post is small enough for us to handle with ordinary tools, and you put something resembling a kite or sail or top of it, a typhoon will break the post or deposit the machine in a pine tree 50 meters away.
I think typical typhoon windspeeds in Japan on land are 80 to 100 km/h. According to the Mainichi newspaper, August 2, Typhoon #5, which just exited to the north, had a windspeed of "45 m/s, with gusts of up to 65 m/s." That's . . . 162 km/h to 234 km/h (101 to 145 mph).
The revised edition of my book has an photo of power lines toppled by a storm in Florida (chapter 14, page 110). This shows why power companies will not survive the advent of cold fusion. As I said in the caption, "power distribution lines of the Achilles' heel of the power companies."
The photo is not attributed because I cannot remember where I found it. - Jed
