In reply to Stephen A. Lawrence's message of Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:28:10 -0400: Hi, [snip] >As to harvesting the altitude voltage differential (as a third power >source), I'm not sure how much power is available there. Lots of volts, >but not sure of the capacity. Anybody know?
I'm not sure whether you mean power capacity or capacitance, but the potential power output is more important IMO, and last time I worked it out based upon the fair weather current I came to about 500 MW. Others will get somewhat different numbers, but it's not a lot. >I'm also afraid you might >find you needed a really whopping big kite to produce a low enough >resistance coupling to the air, conductivity of air being what it is >(vanishingly small). This can in theory be improved by painting the wings with a mildly radioactive substance that ionizes the air around them. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
