They do resonate.
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 ...
6 to 9 miles of ‘string’ is a lot of string for a kite.
LOL oh yeah.... they could use this energy generation to power the “space elevator”.
LOL oh yeah.... they could use this energy generation to power the “space elevator”.
What impact might this have on the jet stream, or weather? What about planes and those long copper or aluminum cables dotting the sky? Lightning?
Right! I like the idea of the Gulf Stream instead...Harness it for our power in Flori-DUH? and ‘freeze’ Europe?....LOL,,,
This would be a hazard for aircraft that use the jet stream to reduce flight time and save fuel.
Not a bad idea. In central Nevada, there's an old mine shaft with an entrance at the top of a mountain and an air shaft on the side of the mountain some several hundred feet lower. The exit at the top is crudely capped with a slab of concrete, but the air rushing through the gaps is incredible. The first thing that came to mind was to uncap the mine and put a turbine generator on it.
This looks like a dumb idea to me.
Thanks for the ping.
Not likely. The form of the jetstream is driven by temperature difference and the kinks are resonances.
Very dumb, but I get a kick out of these ideas and sketches. It's like watching those old black & white movie clips of failed jalopy airplane designs.
No “ideas” are dumb. It is the misapplication of an idea that can be dumb - ask algore.
I have an idea about how to turn Algore into bio diesel. :-D
Wait, wind power causes GLOBAL WARMING?!?!?!!?
tee hee.
Not that it will ever be practicle, or do-able, or feasable, or anything, but I like people who think big like this.
I have always said that, unlike our Luddite Leftists, I believe that Technology will save us from whatever environmental ills befall us. But in order for this to be so, we must keep PUSHING our economies and technologies FORWARD, not backward, like the tree-huggers want to do.
They could put the earth attachment point on a car on a track so they could move it hundreds of miles north or south.
Another idea for Governor Rick's TTC.
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I like idea people also. One idea spawns another and another.... Eventually something workable is hatched. Here is another twist to capturing the jet stream. Run these things up over mountain peaks and high ridge lines. There is a enough wind flowing along ridge lines to crash airplanes and winter jet streams pass low over many mountains. I believe the highest recorded wind was at Mount Washington(?) in New England.
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