TWind Airborne Turbine Concept Could Harvest Energy at High Altitudes

Researchers believe that future airborne wind turbines will be able to spin more fastly in the high altitudes winds some day and send power back to Earth through nanotube tether cables.

Mark Moore, a NASA aerospace engineer believes that the impact of tethered turbines on the airspace as well as the mechanism of flying wind farms should be examined. An airborne farm would not cause any pollution or need any ground resources although it could make some inconveniences such as air traffic jams and headaches for airliners. The speed and strength of wind increases at higher altitudes, so one can get between eight and 27 times the power production at 2,000 feet above ground ,the aerospace engineer claims.

Moreover, the Italian company TWIND suggests that a pair of tethered balloons should fly at 2,600 feet. This way, electricity will be generated. You are probably wondering how… the balloons have sails, thus , the one with an open sail moves downwind and draws the other balloon upwind, and then the motion is reversed, while the tether is sending the sails’movement to the ground, creating electricity.

Moore complains that the federal government doesn’t involve enough in this project and he is going to spend no less than $ 100,000 for the first steps of his research. He points out that he’s trying to create a level playing field of understanding, where one can compare all of the concepts and approaches.

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Researchers to Develop Graphene Organic Photovoltaic Sheets to Collect Solar Energy

A team of scientists at the University of South California’s Viterbi School of Engineering find a new way to collect solar energy by creating new graphene organic photovoltaic sheets. The process involved in producing these sheets is both cost effective and very easy.

The working principle of this method is simple. It involves mixing of hydrogen and methane gases to produce graphene deposits on a nickel plate. Then, a thermo plastic layer is attached to collect graphene whereas nickel is dissolved in an acid bath. The highly transparent and conductive graphene is attached to a flexible polymer sheet, which is layered into an OPV cell.

According to the researchers, the OPV sheets are flexible, cost effective and light weight, having the possibility to be used in many applications, including at home.

Unlike silicon cells which produce 14 watts watts of electricity the new graphene organic photovoltaic sheets are able to generate only 1.3 watts of energy from 1000 watts of solar power directed on a square meter of space.

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Aerogenerator - 10MW Wind Turbine to Produce More Power

Companies around the world are thinking every day how to create new green technologies. Engineers from Britain, US and Norway have come up with a new design of the world’s biggest offshore wind turbine. They planning to build 10MW offshore machines that could be able to power anything.

This giant wind turbines mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and are inspired by floating oil platform technology. Called the “Aerogenerator”, the turbine would stand nearly 600ft high above the waves and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip. According to the company, every offshore turbine should be able to produce enough energy for about 5,000-10,000 homes.

The wind turbines are expected to be complete by the end of 2013. These project will have a great impact on the global energy market.

[Source: Ecofriend]

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