Windbelt

[Bill Morris]

This video demonstrates a radically different way to harness wind energy and produce electricity, with a very low-cost, compact device:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4224763.html?series=37

 

[Zachary Smith]

How much juice do you suppose you could generate if you scale this puppy up and run a number of them vertically up the sides of high-rise buildings?

Enough to go off the grid, maybe?

 

[Bill Morris]

I suppose they might have to be cantilevered for that to work, and either way I assume they would be noisy. Those issues would have to be tested. But really, it doesn't look like something to be scaled up.

 

[Zachary Smith]

LCARS 24 said:
I suppose they might have to be cantilevered for that to work, and either way I assume they would be noisy. Those issues would have to be tested.

I doubt you'd hear them at ground level if they were 30 stories up. As for inside the building, perhaps if it's well-insulated, still quite.

These tall buildings can generate their own weird whipping wind patterns. I suppose if you "kinked" the belt every so often to give it opportunity to catch the wind from different directions, you'd get an even better, more steady response.

I begin to suspectthat the future of energy production is NOT in cheap energy produced in huge amounts at a central hub, like the "power company" but in finding ways for specific dwellings and structures to meet their energy needs independently. This might be one step toward such a process.

 

[Mallory]

Very cool technology. I'd like to have one to play around with myself for a bit.

 

[Bill Morris]

Perhaps something worth a try with this is powering street lights. The shape is certainly right for that. Just attach it to the top of a street light, add a setup with a rechargeable battery, and see if 24 hours of wind exposure is sufficient to keep the battery capable of running the light all night. And that seems like a location with enough wind to do the trick. I've heard that in China rural roads have roadside tree trunks painted white instead of having street lights. But it might be interesing to test the Windbest against solar panels with street lights in a head-to-head comparison.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

No offence but theres not always any wind, I mean where I am most days the wind is so quiet it wouldnt even blow a feather around, especially in a town where buildings are so close they block out any wind at all, if they could build largish versions of these out at sea then maybe it would be worth it.

Maybe they could be used on sea vessels to power some of its systems.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Fire said:
No offence but theres not always any wind, I mean where I am most days the wind is so quiet it wouldnt even blow a feather around, especially in a town where buildings are so close they block out any wind at all, if they could build largish versions of these out at sea then maybe it would be worth it.
Maybe they could be used on sea vessels to power some of its systems.

There's almost always wind whipping around office buildings in downtown areas--though not necessarily at ground level. The heat from the streets and the "chimneys" that are created from the blocks of stone and steel and glass that make the buildings can actually create their own little mini "weather" systems. I think especially by the time you get 20 or 30 stories up, you're almost ALWAYS going to have a pretty hearty wind.