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World's first 4,000-meter airborne wind turbine tested by China — its 747-sized helium blimp generates megawatt power from high-altitude winds (www.techradar.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/energy@slrpnk.net
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[–] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I've been reading about floating wind turbines for decades. I just don't see how something that needs so much ongoing labor and maintenance will ever be financially viable. The avg. wind turbine installed in the US is now >3 MW. So even a 1/3 capacity factor will outperform this.

Google had Makani for years. The vulnerability to weather alone could not be surmounted.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    I think the main advantage is that at a certain hight you always have some wind, so this is rather complementary to other forms of energy generation.

    A mobile version like shown a few months ago could also be useful during emergencies and to help restarting and stabilizing the grid after large scale blackouts.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I had a feeling the kites might work.

    Like its steel wire and a sail and it gets high into strong winds.

    Looking like we might be best just going into overbuilding solar by 20x

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    Whats best is always regional.

    Overbuilt solar is going to win at, say, the edge of the gobi desert.

    But its not going to necessarily be practical at high latitudes, or locations with tons of rain/cloud cover, or places where geothermal is easy. And long distance power transmission is very difficult.

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