Posted on 05/08/2007 5:59:39 AM PDT by Uncledave
Scientists are eyeing the jet stream, an energy source that rages night and day, 365 days a year, just a few miles above our heads. If they can tap into its fierce winds, the world's entire electrical needs could be met, they say.
The trick is figuring out how to harness the energy and get it down to the ground cost-effectively and safely.
Dozens of researchers in California and around the world believe huge kite-like wind-power generators could be the solution. As bizarre as that might seem, respected experts say the idea is sound enough to justify further investigation.
The jet stream typically blows from west to east 6 to 9 miles over the northern hemisphere at speeds up to 310 mph.
By lofting generators into the upper atmosphere, scientists theorize they could capture the power of the jet stream and transmit the electricity along cables back to Earth.
A wind machine, floated into such a monstrous force, would transmit electricity on aluminum or copper cables -- or through invisible microwave beams -- down to power grids, where it would be distributed to homes and businesses. Unlike ground-based wind generators, the high-altitude devices would be too high to be heard and barely visible against the blue sky.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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I’m not sure if such a system could pass the most critical test...would Kennedy be able to see it from his house? :)
Now THAT’S A GREAT IDEA!.......
Are they using sky hooks to hold them up?
Unfortunately the jet stream isn’t always in the same place.
Brilliant.
Suck energy from a natural process that effects the weather for the entire world. If we could effectivly pull enough energy from the jet stream to do some good, it would wreck the world climate worse than global warming could do in a thousand years.
Scientists are brilliant, da?
This is nothing more than a fun idea. It will NEVER see production or implementation. Partially for the reasons listed (The Kennedies WILL see it) and partially because jetson-science is so full of rube goldberg (the turbine with the 4 kites) that it will power no more than itself.
As far as sucking up the jet stream though, there is a vast amount of it. Even thousands of units in the stream wouldn’t block anything.
again, This is all just a joke. Of course, that’s what I said about the space elevator.
I have always been fascinated by science, especially when I was in grade school and junior high school. I remember an article in Reader’s Digest sometime in the 50’s that listed 10 things that would revolutionize the world if someone could invent them or figure out how to do them. I only recall one of them now, but they have not been discovered or invented. One thing they discussed was how you could lay 10 pieces of steel in the sun and each would heat to a certain temperature but there no one had figured out a way to add the heat from all 10 to get a higher temperature than in any single piece.
The jet streams move around constantly. The generator and anchor station would have to constantly relocate.
The Earth is already tapping into the Jet Stream. Look at Greensburg.
And then you have the problem of the wires and aircraft.
A hazard that relocates day to day.
One of my favorites was using barometic pressure differences to drive generators. The idea used pipes or tunnels across hundreds of miles and the pressure gradient would (supposedly) drive turbines.
Not to mention that even a feeble attempt to collect energy from it would radically change the weather over a wide area.
No...but a large-scale collection attempt would shift the stream, cause it to kink in different patterns and at different times... Heck, there's evidence that large-scale windfarms on the ground adjust temperature over several square miles, with some of the new windmill farms projected to possibly change the temperature up to about 5F.
Experts always say that. They don't get the funding if they don't.
Doesn’t the jet stream shift position all the time? I’d hate to be around when that rotor kite comes crashing to the ground as the Jet stream has moved on.
Cute is about all I can say. If the so-called climate change crisis can wait long enough for these technologies to be viable then it ain’t a crisis at all.
As long as HUGE amounts of government funds are infused so as to support these otherwise unemployable scientific idiots and public trough feeders.
What if you harvested wind in places where it is destructive, say tornado or hurricane allies. Wouldn’t that be a benefit? btw, does the jet stream go over India? What makes that patronizing person think Indian villagers will lnog be content with what he prescribes?
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