Wind turbines are a great—and cheap source of energy, which is why manufacturers have been trying to build the biggest, and best versions for years, to capture as much energy as possible from the passing air. Turns out, the solution to getting wind turbines into higher altitudes was simple: trap it in a giant inflatable ring.
Altaeros Energies has left them all in the dust with their plan to launch an inflatable wind turbine high above Fairbanks, Alaska, one that will provide residents with power at around $0.18 a kilowatt hour—about half the price of traditional off-grid electricity for the state.
Their Buoyant Airborne Turbine, or BAT, is a helium-filled ring that suspends a wind turbine on the inside, where it will float at 300 meters, double the hub height of the world’s current largest wind turbine.
Unlike the wind turbines we’ve been keeping firmly on the ground, the BAT is not designed to support whole electric grids: Altaeros’ turbine was created to supply power to isolated villages, military bases, or disaster zones. The BAT has a power capacity of 30 kilawatts, which will generate enough energy to power around 12 homes. According to Discovery, it can also support cellular transceivers, meteorological equipment and other sensors.
Unlike other turbines, the BAT can be deployed for use in under 24 hours, because it doesn’t need cranes or other large equipment, only high-strength tethers that secure it in place and send electricity back to the ground once it’s been inflated.
BAT utilizes the same technology used by industrial blimps to withstand hurricanes, so while the company has tested their invention in 70 kilometer-per-hour winds it could potentially handle stronger blasts. Altaeros says that their technology could definitely prove beneficial to the US military, whose off-grid bases currently rely on generators.
Source Discovery
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