Meanwhile in the Real Energy world...

[Zachstar]

While the usual suspects tout fantasies of 100 years of clean coal and oil.. Serious research goes on on how to harness forms of energy that does little to the environment and little to the nations pocketbook...

While a fantasy spreads about "If you just reduce energy we can sustain with what we have" Data comes in about china demanding more and more energy..

While some demand .gov action to pay part of the expensive Li-ion packs for their cars.. Others are researching cheaper and higher energy density storage mechanisms.. A great example being EEstor who managed to even interest Lockmart with its technology..

There is a simple fact of life.. As population grows the energy required to sustain such population grows rapidly.. There is no getting around this with existing technology and any talk of population reduction or reduction of growth is usually an elephant in the room.. Are you going to be the one that mandates birth control?

So while the fantasies get shot down quickly thanks to the internetz people are out designing ways to power the future..

Who likes kites?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...eenergy.energy

I would MUCH prefer a bunch of kites in the air than gizillions of windmills.. Kites are fascinating to watch and power generation kites have plenty of room for a number of different uses (Yes I know it will be 100 percent ads but atleast they can make the ads pretty)

[UnderseaLcpl]

Interesting idea. But, I bet we see fusion before kites ever work on a large scale.

[Zachstar]

What? The article stated the ability to power 100 thousand homes with these things.. That is more homes than some cities..

Besides with kites getting them back up after a failure is much easier.. And not to mention deployment when it takes upwards of 10 rigs to haul a single Wind tower into place...

Fusion will take decades to come online with any seriousness.. And because there will be nutjobs that will claim they spill radiation as well. Politics will keep them offline for years..

I like this because this has the ability to turn large areas into power production zones without destroying the environment.. And may even be tourist attractions as many will come to see these things flying..

[UnderseaLcpl]

Well, zach, you mention one of the things that will keep them offline when you mention politics.

I would also love to see kite plants and clean electricity generation.

However, given the nature of the media and the fact that the greatest potential of this device still lies in its developers claims, I don't think we will ever see it used for mass power-generation.

How much power can these generate per dollar spent on research and implementation? What happens if the wind stops or the kites get tangled up? How much land would have to be devoted to such a facility? What happens when there is a storm?

While I share your optimism that all these issues may be resolved, I don't have enough faith in this to invest a dime in it, and even less to support it with my tax money.

[Zachstar]

Edit: Now in first line = No... sorry about that

No power generation is 100 percent. Even Fission...

That is why energy storage research is so important.. So you can use extra kites to charge the batteries to keep from having to move the coal plant to 100 percent to power the 100k homes..

I can understand the concern about using tax dollars for this.. I agree that unless a full plant to provide a local community with power is constructed for a less than half of what it would take to construct a coal plant in the same location.. It needs no tax money.. Prizes will more than pay for it..

Edit: However tax going to this is much preferable than to rich oil companies claiming 100 years from local oil..

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

Edit: Now in first line = No... sorry about that

No power generation is 100 percent. Even Fission...

That is why energy storage research is so important.. So you can use extra kites to charge the batteries to keep from having to move the coal plant to 100 percent to power the 100k homes..

I can understand the concern about using tax dollars for this.. I agree that unless a full plant to provide a local community with power is constructed for a less than half of what it would take to construct a coal plant in the same location.. It needs no tax money.. Prizes will more than pay for it..

Edit: However tax going to this is much preferable than to rich oil companies claiming 100 years from local oil..

I think that project doesn't need much tax money, in stead of, I think it's very cheap.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

What? The article stated the ability to power 100 thousand homes with these things.. That is more homes than some cities..

From the article:

The experiment generated enough electricity to power 10 family homes, and the researchers have plans to test a 50kW version of their invention, called Laddermill, eventually building up to a proposed version with multiple kites that they claim could generate 100 megawatts, enough for 100,000 homes.

Key words there being "test" , "proposed" and "they claim".

I also wonder, at a height of 800 meters, how many private aircraft are going to end up flying into the kites and how many animal activists are going to complain about the possible impact on migratory birds.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

From the article:

Key words there being "test" , "proposed" and "they claim".

I also wonder, at a height of 800 meters, how many private aircraft are going to end up flying into the kites and how many animal activists are going to complain about the possible impact on migratory birds.

Your very last sentence was the very first thing that came to my mind. The studies on the effects of the local environment and habitat to animals where these will fly will take at least 5 years. There is so much red tape to get anything done I often wonder how anything is done at all.

[Digital_Trucker]

Something is getting done? I didn't know that:rotfl:

Seriously, safety does need to be a concern as well. I wasn't kidding when I wondered how many planes would fly into them or the tethers they are atached to.