Watch Altaeros Energies’ Inflatable Wind Turbine Soar 350 Feet in the Air
21st April 2012
Read it. And watch the video.
Last month Altaeros Energies demonstrated its Airborne Wind Turbine, a 35-foot-wide blimp that could carry a turbine hundreds of feet into the air in order to harness stronger winds. While we had heard about the achievement, the company has now released a video showing the AWT in action. The clip shows the turbine blimp being tested 350 feet in the air, where it managed to generate twice the amount of power as a land-based turbine and then transfer it back to the ground through special tethers. It’s impressive to watch, but the company has even bigger plans for the AWT — eventually it’s expected to reach heights of over 1,000 feet.
And if these are widely deployed, how long before some stupidly-piloted aircraft or helicopter flies into the tethers and crashes? Nobody thinks things through any more.
April 21st, 2012 at 10:33
Anyone flying an aircraft as low as 1,000 feet deserves to crash and burn.
As for helicopters, the rotor wash should push the damned balloons out of the way.
Really, you worry about the dumbest things…
April 22nd, 2012 at 11:19
Wait, I can see this opening up a whole new climate crisis: Wind Interruption. By putting turbines into the wind, we will be slowing down life-giving wind and causing the planet to over/under heat/cool/something. Women and minorities will be affected the most.
April 22nd, 2012 at 20:09
Like Lucy in Peanuts: “Stop scuffing your feet! You’re wearing down the earth!”