Could the tether of a space elevator serve to transport electricity to earth from airborne wind turbines ?
Monday, August 31st, 2009 at
2:40 pm
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Filed under: Wind energy
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A tether in space would produce its own electricity. This experiment was tried on one of the shuttle missions with a quarter mile tether and the energy it produced was phenomenal. The tether alone would produce more energy than wind generators attached to it.
I’m not quite sure but it has something to do with the difference of speed of one end of the tether and the other. Somehow it produces a large difference in charge from one end to the other. They said a tether so many miles long itself could easily power the city of new york if I remember correctly. Do a search for the term "shuttle tether".
As I remember, it was a mishap with an experiment and when they found the flaw, it was some form of hi electrical current that burnt and melted the tether while testing a satellite.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=1122
A perfectly good idea. Thumbs up.
Conceivably, yes. The problem of course is the space elevator itself. We have no known material capable of supporting its own weight over the distance required to build such an elevator… and no techniques for building it if we did. There’s been a lot of talk about carbon nanotubes, but even then, we’re just not there yet. Note "yet". It’s a fascinating concept and worth exploring, though. So why not slap a few wind generators to it?
Balloons raised up to one kilometer make more sense than elevator towers. The service life would have to be at least one year, but that seems feasible. The air pressure could be maintained with a small motor. Solar panels and batteries could also be used to acheive optimum positioning.
Safety would be a problem for air traffic, but no-fly zones are already in the controller’s computers. The major problem will be storms. The stress on the tether would be enormous in a tornado. Who want’s to be responsible for the damage caused by a falling windmill? With enough warning, maybe the balloons could be grounded quickly enough.
Of course, that problem exists for towers as well – and you easily can’t bring down a tower.