Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the 'wind lens' could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power.
Snapshot from video 
It's also important to point out that growth in wind power capacity is perfectly symbiotic with projected growth in electric vehicles. EV battery packs can soak up wind power produced during the night, helping to equalize the curve of daytime energy demand. So the controversial investment currently being entertained by President Obama to pipe oil down from the Canadian Tar Sands would — in my utopian vision — be a moot point.| Previous Post 5 breakthroughs that will make solar power cheaper than coal | Next Post How would you spend $7 billion? |
Comments
bye, bye birds
wer is the shaft connected?
y the middle part is not connected ?
It appears to me that the inner part runs on a track inside the outer part.
it would appear that so many comments get a little off track perhaps what we really need is a more responsible consumer attitude about how we consume energy and the products we buy and create that require energy to function ! BLAH,BLAH,BLAH
Wake -up ? the saudis are saying they can produce enough solar generated from when and if they do it from their desert in one hour to give the planet enough elec. for a day or year or something like that ... Now think of this all you have to do is put a solar panel grid in outer space ,thats rite ,infact put a bunch of them .How do you get the power back ? change it into the same as your micro way you have in your kitchen you have enough power always even if you turn everthing on an leave.... More
That windmill LOOKS awesome. But i always thought that the cost to build things like that would always outweigh the money you get in return.
I build a windmill at my house out of a car alternator, it works great, but still not cheaper then just paying for electricity. More pictures here: .... More
Wind energy is actually quite cool to be honest, but the simple fact is that you only get power when there is wind not when you want power. Well I live in between India's largest windfarm (a total installed capacity of nearly 3000MW), but now during the summer when household electricity consumption is highest, it seems that the wind god's too are enjoying their summer vacations, so not even a single wind turbine seems to be turning when we need them the most.
Whereas if you look at.... More
Switch to Solar in the Summer. Then you'll have the best of both --wind power and solar power. Seems like a good marriage of technologies--a hybrid power generator. We've done that here in the States already. So, it's your turn over there in India. Va Pour Sa!
Yeah, but if a windmill breaks, you don't have to evacuate a town and worry about being exposed to dangerous nuclear radiation like you would if a nuclear plant melts down.
When we talk about alternate energy we talk about the need of a few percent of people who are anyway guranted electricity for their needs and luxury.
Think of the developing world where almost 85 % of the population is deprived of electric power in their homes.Not that there is not sufficient electricity but a few loves to consume too much for them.
What we therefore need a re-look at the needs of the people.And then make electricity a fundamental right to each and citizen in the.... More
Sounds feasible, but a disaster for the environment, what about installing solar Panels on every roof of all the houses that exist, ie Electrical companies must replace House Roofs with solar panels with a electrical bill discount to every building concerned instead of covering the country side with wind towers and hundreds of acres of land covered in Solar Panels.
What about the environmental impact on birds and insects? Those prairies are huge migration routes.
Disclaimer: Not an ecologist (evolutionary biologist), so I this is really all I know: I was at a biology conference in January and popped into a session on the ecological impact of wind turbines. Apparently wind farms DO result in mass deaths of birds, bats, and insects-- I was shocked at the numbers. On the flip side, though, many wind farms seem to be willing to work with ecologists to reduce the impact as much as possible (i.e. turning the turbines parallel to migration routes and.... More
this would be great in every state.
sheer genius and why have our representatives not announced this breakthrough? because big oil dumps a boatload of donations to every one of them so you see where their priorities lie,not with the American citizen for sure
How about a few facts on how this new lens works.
TransWest LLC and the DOE are building a windfarm in CO and the electricity generated will travel on high-voltage power lines from CO to Las Vegas-expected completion date is 2014. It's supposed to power Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. TransWest is owned by CO billionaire Anspach (or something close) the guy that was financing Michael Jackson's comeback tour. Let's see how that turns out.
If I lived in CO, I think I would be aggravated by the fact that the windmills are being built in CO - while the benefit is being given to southern CA and NV. But Anspach has big financial interests in Los Angeles. I think we need an "investigative reporter." The only reason I know about it is because I'm involved in historic preservation and this power line is going to destroy the National Landmark known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre site in Utah. I'm on the fence. People need to look at.... More
this certainly isn't anything new-- I used to live within 5 miles of a nuke plant but the power went to another state (they got better rates for it)-- we got the extra cost and the danger while someone else got the electric!
Indian tribes didn't get any electric for having their lands contaminated from mining uranium ore-- just high cancer rates.
Just think that most of all the power generated by the Hoover Dam goes to the LA area. What we need is power that is generated to supply the local area and any surplus energy then be feed onto the national grid.
Fantastic if this is real. Here is an interesting story as well.
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/05/04/n_co_vestas_ceo.cnnmoney/
"....Let's say we developed just 20 percent of those wind resources — 170,000 square miles (440,000 km2) or an area roughly 1/4 the size of Alaska...."
one forth the land area of Alaska? I want to see you get this past the enviromentalist loonies. Using that much land?
IDK if anyone else noticed but 170,000 square miles happens to be larger than THE ENTIRE STATE OF CALIFORNIA! Every number based off of the calculations of this proposed wind farm is completely unrealistic.
Relative size spread throughout the United States... not an actual 1/4 portion of Alaska...
As one of those environmentalist loonies - I'd vote for it; it is a non-lethal source of energy.
It is better and safer ,may be in addition to getting power from neuclear sources
senior translator, researcher , negotiater and blogger
salah m kamel
Funny, just lately I've been wondering why wind turbines have to be so humungous, and they've seemingly only invented ONE style that can git 'er dun? Seems wack. While a lot of NIMBY Pimby old grumps hate the monstrous things with which they plan on lining every mountain range, we could (should) be coming up with smaller scale, individual-level solutions. Every home could have several solar panels and a smaller, lighter weight wind turbine and cut their bills in half or by a third....... More
The wind depends on "energy" to produce hp (watts). About 12 mph is required, and there is a thing called the Betts law which calculates the power possible.
I have a patent on a new turbine, and am in in the process of making a 5 meter rig now. This should make it possible for every farm to produce the power for the water pump, and a bit to spare. (for you information, a windmill is direct power, and has very little loss in efficiency. By having a generator, half of all power is.... More
The only problem, wind technology relies on wind... which means when no wind, no power. So we need something reliable, predictable, don't we? I suppose everyone should have a diesel generator as backup.
not if they were tied into a grid-- wind will be blowing somewhere!
traditional plants also go down for maintenance and repairs-- we just pull from other sources on the grid.
The main thing is to reduce the amount of electric we use (we waste about 40%, we should start there). All answers make more sense if the amount needed is reduced.
Then you don't just rely on wind alone. You have to combine your resources. Solar and wind are good choices. Producing energy from a gas or diesel generator is not cost effective for the average home owner, even if it is only done on a short term basis.
You are spoiled. If you go back 70 years in the US, then a windmill was on every farm. There was a big watering tank to pump into when the wind blew. Normally this happens at early morning and during afternoon. When no wind, no water, so you have to have a big tank to handle the cattle in case of no wind for a day or so.
Get used to "outages" if you do not have a diesel. You plan your stuff around when the power is there.
We have to get away from the use of oil, coal and nuclear power because century's from now we need to leave the world some oil and coal and a clean environment that isn't destroyed by what we do today. It's obvious when we don't even have any more winters like we had 50 years ago that something is wrong. When winter temperatures are like spring weather you have to admit that global warming is here and there isn't no denying it. Progress is made when a better way is thought of and initiated. We.... More
About the climate temperature rise, it's curious that no one ever mention that when the Vikings came in Esperies ( North America) around year 800 to 900 after Christ, the named a big island " Groenland" Witch we call " GreenLand " a place where today lies a gigantic bloc of rapidly melting ice... The place was Green 1200 years ago...
much warmer then compare to our days....
When Christopher Columbus came here round 1492, he used a map from an Persian navigator called: Piri.... More
Greenland and Iceland were named so to confuse travelers, or referred to as such by confused cartographers....Greenland WAS NOT a green pasture island 1200 years ago...you are just stupid.
Just to clarify, "Greenland" should actually be called Iceland and vice versa. The Vikings named them such to confuse and avoid other raiders from going to their actually place of habitation, Iceland. So in short Greenland is Icey and Iceland is green. Trust me, it sounds dumb but it is true, look it up.
Sorry but you are wrong. Eric the Red settled Greenland. He named it Greenland to make it sound like a lush land of plenty to lure settlers with him.
The Vikings settled Greenland during a warm period were ice was mainly in the North where the Inuits settled a few decades later. As the weather returned to its normal colder cycle over about 20 years, the settlers experienced extreme hardships with failed crops, livestock starving through the winter and eventual abandonment by their.... More
Erik named it Iceland, not to confuse invaders, but to confuse potential settlers...He was trying to attract people. There are several accounts of Erik saying this....You are just stupid also, read a book.
^^^^ That is correct... The misinformation out there is incredible!!
Solar solar wind wind...no more nukes
When recently polled, 9 out of 10 Fukushima residents answered "not in my backyard"
The author makes it sound like 1/4 the size of Alaska is relatively small. Building something of this scale is completely ridiculous! Take a look at a map.
Do you have to put them all in one spot? What if there were 4 or 6 or 8 spots?
One quarter the size of Alaska vs. destroying the whole of the earth by oil, fracking and nukes? Is there a math teacher out there that can help us out?
"...[it will] require a lot more maintenence than a typical coal or gas power plant. But in a lagging economy this might just be wind power's biggest upside — it will create lots and lots of permanent jobs..."
Huh??? So we should adopt a maintenance-heavy technology just to "create jobs"? Maybe we should also build our roads with shovels instead of earth-moving equipment. And forget water pipes to our homes; let's employ "lots and lots" of people with buckets. If a job is make-work it.... More
Maybe our financial wealth is not the issue here.
so what don't you understand about cheaper?
Sure, wind is not constant. That's why renewable energy in the commercial distribution spectrum has the same challenges we do in the auto industry.......storage.
