Professor Bryan Roberts, an Australian engineer with sought after expertise in helicopter technology, has long realized the potential of high altitude wind energy. He has now designed a Flying Electric Generator, classified as a rotorcraft, using a single tether, designed to operate at an altitude of 15,000 feet and higher where only average winds are sufficient to generate power.
And it is clear now that FEGs rated in the tens of megawatts may operate at higher altitudes with rotor diameters not exceeding those used today on the largest helicopters. Sky Wind Power imagines clusters of 600 units, each producing 20 megawatts, together putting out more power than a nuclear power plant, and taking up a 10x20 mile rectangle of airspace. Roberts claims to have built a prototype able to generate power at a lower altitude, and the website has an abundance of pages detailing available winds at different heights, global power consumption, the long-range economics of the design, even how the FEGs could be used to generate hydrogen. The intensity of the prose AND THE OVERUSE OF ALL-CAPS gives the site a distinctly "crank" feeling, as does the Gernsbackian vision of tethered autogyros supplying power to us all. But the engineering & science aren't outrageous; in principle, such a thing should be possible (if not necessarily feasible). Safety is the biggest concern -- tethered vehicles at 15,000 feet and higher can pose a bit of a problem for non-tethered aircraft, and there's the perennial "what happens if the line snaps?" problem. Perhaps the design should be altered to include a lighter-than-air element -- who can say no to autogyros and dirigibles? via http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002430.html
