Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics

[Councilman]

You think this looks bad? This is where I lived for three and a half years and I could see this view pretty much out the window and it's not that bad and I never saw a dead bird, but I did see millions of them flying by.

Now go to where the link below takes you and see what you think of a possible future.

Takes up less space but it kind looks like a bunch of dead trees.

You really have to go see the proposed design, it sure answers a few problems the Environmentally ill came up with when the Windmill concept was put in to practice threatening their incomes.

This new concept could force them back to the conference room to come up some objection to this proposal.

Get ready for that. They might start with Something like: "It looks like dead trees and causes wide spread depression among the poor environmentalists, who only have the overall health of the planet at heart and seeing what looks like a dead forest is too much and they can't function and it is killing productivity on the jobs of tens of thousands of otherwise great employees, and this is having a negative effect on the Economy."

"We should therefore must curtail any effort to put this idea into effect."


Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics : Discovery News
By Alyssa Danigelis

Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s “Windstalk” project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

 

[Hoplite]

That's actually an extremely clever idea.

To harness wind energy, you are going to need SOME kind of physical apparatus. Be it the turbines we have today or the proposed reed design. You CANT get around that and wind itself is a great source of power. The equipment you need for it is minimal, it produces no waste or byproducts, it's renewable, low maintenance, and there are plenty of places to put collectors.

If the issue is birds and bats, let's tear down skyscrapers!
Glass blamed for billion bird deaths a year - U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com

Apparently they're worse than wind turbines by several orders of magnitude. We got used to seeing skyscrapers, we'll get used to seeing wind collectors.

 

[Councilman]

That's actually an extremely clever idea.

To harness wind energy, you are going to need SOME kind of physical apparatus. Be it the turbines we have today or the proposed reed design. You CANT get around that and wind itself is a great source of power. The equipment you need for it is minimal, it produces no waste or byproducts, it's renewable, low maintenance, and there are plenty of places to put collectors.

If the issue is birds and bats, let's tear down skyscrapers!
Glass blamed for billion bird deaths a year - U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com

Apparently they're worse than wind turbines by several orders of magnitude. We got used to seeing skyscrapers, we'll get used to seeing wind collectors.

Windows are not alone in killing birds. In between Radio gigs I ran Distribution Centers all over and in Portland OR, one evening I was working late and heard what sounded like a softball hitting one the metal roll up doors so hard I heard it in my office since I was the only one there at that time of night I went to check on it and there at a loading dock on the ground was a dead ring necked Pheasant. Must have just not seen the building which I found hard to believe what with it being almost 1/4 mile long. What I know for sure it it wasn't sick but it was tasty for lunch the next day after smoking it. lol Absolutely true story.

 

[spud_meister]

They're quite a good idea, and that they can be used underwater is good to, they seem like an excellent alternative to turbines.

 

[Orion]

That looks really cool. It's like a technological forest. I've see this idea put forth elsewhere... for instance, street lights that look like trees whose leaves light up at night, but during the day they gather solar energy.

Really clever.

 

[bowerbird]

Shades of the "subways of Tazoo" (ols sci fi short story where they used large harp like structures embedded with piezo electric devices beneath the harp wires to generate electricity)

But I have wondered why we have not gone down the road of piezo electric devices before - I mean they are cheap enough - we use them every day in ICU

 

[Hoplite]

But I have wondered why we have not gone down the road of piezo electric devices before - I mean they are cheap enough - we use them every day in ICU

My guess would be they're too expensive for large-scale use or that they simply dont generate enough power for it to be worth making them.

 

[bowerbird]

My guess would be they're too expensive for large-scale use or that they simply dont generate enough power for it to be worth making them.

I could not tell you the answer either - I mean we use them on our arterial and other pressure lines to read the pressures generated. They are not THAT expensive because they are disposable

 

[spud_meister]

My guess would be they're too expensive for large-scale use or that they simply dont generate enough power for it to be worth making them.

It says in the article that the power they produce is comparable to a turbine.

 

[Hoplite]

It says in the article that the power they produce is comparable to a turbine.

Not the devices in the OP, it was a power generation method bower had brought up