· Low Efficiency
· Requires huge amount of land area
· Depends upon weather conditions
· Requires costly equipments
· Does not use the maximum wind
The type of windmills we use are not harnessing the highest amount of energy available through wind. Windmills are set up on the ground where the wind currents have the lowest energy. It can be observed in the following graph that the wind speeds increase with the altitude up to 10km above the sea level.
(Source: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Theories_of_Flight/atmosphere/TH1G3.htm)
Hence, it is a better idea to take the wind energy from that altitude. We can use balloons filed with low density gas or hot air to lift our wind turbines to that altitude of the atmosphere. It would remain there and produce electricity. It would always be along strong wind. Thus producing more electricity than any ground based windmills. Magenn Power Inc. has already made such a balloon. (Source: http://www.magenn.com/index.php)
Yet, that balloon turbine is not placed in the perfect altitude. It is too big as well, the balloon itself acts as a turbine and the problem with that is: it may not rotate very fast due to the huge mass of the balloon. And the biggest draw back for this is it is attached to a wire. We need to build a turbine which would just be attached to the balloon and rotate with the maximum velocity. It needs to be placed around an altitude of 12 kms above sea level. It also has to be free of wires.
An obvious question arises with this idea, ”How can the electricity be transferred to the ground for use?” And the solution to that is WiTricity. Witricity is a new way of transferring electrical energy through the space without medium with the help of electromagnetic radiation. The emitter of these radiations would have a particular frequency. The receiver needs to resonate with the same frequency in order to receive the electrical energy. This method of electricity transmission was first thought by Nikola Tesla in Electrical world and Engineer,1904. He used electromagnetic radiation to transmit electricity to light a bank and run a motor over a distance of 26 miles. He claimed it to be 95% efficient. However, his research didn’t gain much popularity at that time and the idea died for a long time. More than a hundred years later a professor and some students of MIT restarted the project of Nikola Tesla. They have now succeeded in making WiTricity. However this time it is just 45% efficient. Soon there would be cell phones, laptops and television available in the market which would get charged using the witricity technology.
Therefore, we can use witricity to transmit electricity from the turbines hooked with the balloons at higher altitude. This technology would also enable us to get rid of all the electricity cables around the cities and towns. We would be able to get electricity directly to our homes from the balloons. We would simply need a receiver of particular frequency. Different providers can use different frequency bandwidth to provide electricity directly to their customers home. This can work even very well with electric cars. We can use this technology to provide energy for the electric automobiles on the road. No need of storage battery, fuel tanks nothing!
Another question which might be asked about this technology is:”Can these balloons ever crash with aero planes flying in the sky?” Well, most commercial jets fly about an altitude of 9,000m or 9km above the sea level; whereas the optimum height for these balloons would be about 12,000m or 12km sea level. Hence, there is very less chance for aero planes to crash with these balloons. In fact to keep these balloons even more safe, there should be a provision to deflate these. Suppose, if there is a low pressure zone created in that altitude, then it would become necessary to bring these balloons down to earth otherwise all these balloons can come together and crash.
Now, even if we put these wind turbines high up in the sky there would still be a question of low efficiency. Turbines or any mechanical system loses a huge amount of energy due to internal friction while rotation. The mechanical parts like gears, shafts etc lose a good percentage of energy due to friction. There was a solution proposed to this problem proposed by Harold T Faus(Source: Google Scholar) . He patented his invention of magnet gears on 27th may 1941 (U.S. Patent No. 2243555). These magnetic gears would never touch each other while rotating, due to magnetic repulsion between the teeth. Hence, there would not be any loss of energy due to friction. But strangely enough, this does not seem to have been used in any machine so far. But, since it can reduce loss of energy it would be able to increase the efficiency of our wind turbine to some extent.
Also, photo voltaic cells may be attached to the surface of the balloons. The balloons are located at high altitudes. This means they would be above the clouds and exposed in direct sunlight. This would add to the amount of electricity produced by the balloon.
Now, these balloons are going to be moving/flying all over the sky. So it would not be the kind of thing which would be available to selected regions or country. Electricity can be obtained by anyone anywhere who would be able to make a receiver set for the frequency. Hence here is a strong chance of making electricity absolutely free to everybody whoever is willing to use it. So it is very important to first start this project with sheer generosity and not with the intension of making more money. Think of the world where there is no electricity bill, little pollution and lots of balloons moving around in the sky like clouds which may not be visible from the ground.
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