New ultra efficient wind turbine

[danrok]

From the front page:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1562/2/

Comments?

[cadaveca]

Wonder if it can suck ELF outta the air too? . That's some of the silliest looking stuff i have even seen...but hey...stealing energy from the planet is good, right?

[madcatmk3]

what can I say its progress.

[robbie]

I'll have to look out by Palm Springs... they have TONS of the windmills out there. I'm sure they will get some of these as well.

[Got EpOx]

Looks pretty cool, but it would be really weird to look at from a distance. Atleast we're making progress, woo!

[fearless joe]

id call twice as good very good progress, if its true

shame we wont get the windmills anymore though, i think they look cool

[Daniel ~]

50% is Hugely significant as advances go! That it is not a hindrance to wildlife and can evidently spin in higher winds could shift the bang for buck solidly in it's favor.

Remember, it's doesn't have to be great, just cheaper than oil, that's getting easier everyday.

P.S.

Oh! I'd love to have one!

[Gizmo]

Cad raises a good point though:

How much power can we steal from the wind before we are harming the environment? Winds power ocean surface currents, which power the weather. Placing an obstacle in the path of the wind to harness power from it means that the wind is no longer able to perform some other function which may be useful on a larger scale.

[fearless joe]

valid point, i have no clue as to the answer,

i think a big problem is that wind and solar generation cant be turned up or down, so they need to have a way of storing massive amounts of power, simple example, the wind blows at night then use it in the day, they may well allready have some but, apart from pumping water up a massive hill so they can let it flow down again through some generaters, i don't know how they could do it.

other thing is they will need someway to make up the difference if the wind doesnt blow/ sun dosent shine etc, i think it should be nuclier, as its, not clean, but at least you can store the wast, althoguh for a loooong time.

[Gizmo]

You don't rely on the generators solely for power, whether you are using wind, water, or solar. Ideally, you size your generating capacity to overproduce at peak and store the excess in batteries, which you then draw down when you are no longer able to produce sufficient power to meet demands. With proper sizing, you overproduce enough during peak power generation periods so that it averages out.

[Southern Man]

Originally Posted by gizmo

Cad raises a good point though:

How much power can we steal from the wind before we are harming the environment? Winds power ocean surface currents, which power the weather. Placing an obstacle in the path of the wind to harness power from it means that the wind is no longer able to perform some other function which may be useful on a larger scale.

I'm no rocket scientist but I think that the huge / tall buildings we are building in cities and the huge, tall, and broad hotels we are building along the coast lines are probably blocking more wind than a flowing turbine.

Just a guess.....

[Southern Man]

Since we are on the subject.....

I liked this story: IT IS a mechanical problem that has troubled scientists since Archimedes and the ancient Greeks, but now a Scottish electrician has come up with the answer - and it could help consumers save thousands of pounds in energy bills.

Ian Gilmartin, 60, has invented a mini water wheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house - for free.

The full Article

[cloasters]

Ian Gilmartin, you da man! This is great, maybe there's hope for humanity after all.

[Ultimate_death]

As far as i know you can actually turn the wind power up and down, at least the amount the turbines steal. I think they just reduce the force required to turn it and let it spin more freely. Though i think there is a limit to the speed it can go.

I was wondering about the effect of nicking wind energy and stuff too. Like with fusion being a clean unlimited energy source, but technically eventually you'll run out of elements to fuse just like a star... in the end we're all doomed, what a pleasant thought

[fearless joe]

i duno if any of you have heard of or seent he al gore film 'an inconvinent truth' but id suggest watching it, its confurms everything i'v been told since school

[cloasters]

I read that The Thing acknowledged global warming as it pertains to the loss of Polar Bear habitat recently. Amazing. Welcome to the 21st century, Thing.

[aghastpumpkin]

Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth sucks to hell. A lot of what he says will happen in the future is purely, and only, speculation. When he talks about the ice sheet in Antarctica, he cleverly tells you about its size in a way that makes you think, holy crap! What most people don't realise, and Al Gore conveniently fails to tell you, is that the vast majority of Antarctica is actually currently cooling and has been doing so for 200 years. He also fails to tell you that although the ice sheet that fell off was big, VERY big, it is tiny in comparison the the actual size of Antarctica which is much bigger than you see on the maps. He also fails to put across the point that the chances of human activity being the cause of this ice sheet falling off are almost zero. It has probably been falling off for hundreds of years! Do you seriously think man caused an ice sheet so high you could fit a skyscraper in it to melt enough that it broke off in a short space of time? Really? How can you be sure at all that man had any responsiblity for this? It is another story, twisted and wound round peoples necks and never told wholly or truthfully.

As for the environment and Global Warming, don't get me started. Sure, GW is real and caused by humans. But some of it is greatly exaggerrated in the media and suchlike. I have read newspaper articles that even say the world will end in 2015 if we don't act now. Whatever.
It is an incredible shame that something like the Polar Bear is dying out, but what nobody knows for certain, not you, not the scientists, is whether that is a result of human activity or a natural occurence.
It is most likley the former, but we must be hesitant before we point the finger.
The problem is, nobody really knows what true effect humans are actually having.

[fearless joe]

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

purely, and only, speculation.

well, if you mean accepted by almost all scientists and geographist and anyone anywhere with half a brain then yes

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

Antarctica which is much bigger than you see on the maps.

so all are maps are wrong, is that what your saying

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

How can you be sure at all that man had any responsiblity for this?

not all this, contributing factors

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

It is another story, twisted and wound round peoples necks and never told wholly or truthfully.

this i must say i agree with

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

Sure, GW is real and caused by humans.

no its not, noone is saying that we caused global warming its natural and we would never had been born without it. we are mealy accelarating it

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

The problem is, nobody really knows what true effect humans are actually having.

all the scientists around the world who have been trying to warn people of this for years, i can accept they cant really know for sure that everything that is happening is down to us. so we should, what, sit back and do nothing.
o, my god, the complacency.

dont take this the rong way, but your wrong

rant over