Is there a picture of the actual mill anywhere? I've seen concept
drawings of laddermills but never a photo, as far as I can recall.
The Dutch version of the story (which I read, in highly scrambled form,
grace of Babelfish) seems to say they've also demo'd this in a concert
with Jan Ackerman in which his equipment was powered by electricity from
a kite (albeit the wind failed and they apparently had to run on
batteries during the concert, but the batteries had been charged by
another kite so it was still a legit demo -- at least I /think/ that's
what it said).
So, Ockels is generating electricity alright -- but certainly not from
the piece of equipment in the picture, which is just a kite, no dynamo,
no pulleys, no nothing which would do the work. So I was just wondering
if there's a shot of the part that makes the juice anywhere.
Terry Blanton wrote:
http://rense.com/general78/kinet.htm
GRONINGEN, The Netherlands -- Dutch astronaut Dr Wubbo Ockels has
successfully demonstrated his new energy concept in a field near the
university city of Groningen today. He has flown a high-flying energy
kite, creating kinetic energy from huge radio-controlled highflying
kites. He has designed 'ladder-mills' to store the kinetic energy and
convert it into electricity.
Three such ladder-mills provide enough electricity to power the entire
city of Groningen. The experiment was carried out along the northern
coastline of The Netherlands where there's usually more than enough
wind to raise the gigantic kites into.The radio- controlled,
high-flying kites can create some 10,5kw electricity each, Dr Ockels
told a local radio station.
"At the moment we are the only developers who have managed to succeeed
in this concept, although other groups are also testing it in Italy
and Australia," he said. The kites can fly like aeroplanes, so you
don't need energy to get it back down again. I want people to stop
burning coal and gas for energy and start using these ladder-mills as
alternative energy sources," he said.
LINK to DUTCH NEWS REPORT:
http://www.rtvnoord.nl:80/nieuws/index.asp?actie=totaalbericht&pid=68034
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