Flying 'super turbines' could capture more power

Two technologies that we are unabashedly in love with here at EcoGeek are wind power and lighter-than-air craft. So a system that combines blimps and wind turbines is certain to draw our attention.

With wind turbines, most schemes to increase power have focused on increasing the swept area of the blades and improving their aerodynamic performance. But that's not the only way to do it.

The Selsam SuperTurbine is a concept for a multi-blade wind turbine for either land-based or offshore installations. With the smaller swept area of each individual rotor, this turbine promises to be less visually obtrusive than other types of off-shore turbines. A design featuring a simple stalk with multiple sets of rotors all turning a shared axle allows this turbine design to produce more power despite the smaller swept area.

In offshore installations, the Selsam turbine can also be lowered or even submerged in violent storm conditions to protect the turbine from damage. This ability also makes maintenance and repair work easier, rather than needing to have workers scaling multiple-hundreds of feet to access them.

For larger scale generation (over 1 megawatt), the blimp-lofted design would have dozens of rotor sets along the axle in order to turn the generator, and the weight of the axle would be supported by a blimp to lift the far end.

Obviously, a lot of work will have to be done to determine whether this system truly could increase the financial viability of wind power. But for pure inspiration and beauty we have to give Selsam our most enthusiastic thumbs up.

via: Groovy Green