Giant wind turbines on space

[Myuncle]

No wind required, you start rotating them and they will never stop, energy problem solved, is it?

[zapatos]

Unless you want to start using the energy.

[Myuncle]

Could they reach the planet through a long cable built above the South Pole? Is it feasible?

[insane_alien]

Could they reach the planet through a long cable built above the South Pole? Is it feasible?

 

no

[the asinine cretin]

The energy could theoretically be transferred to Earth via collimated low frequency EM radiation (perhaps radio or microwave). I'm not sure how you hope to get around the law of conservation of energy though. I do like the general idea of space-based power generation. Solar radiation, the momentum of the Earth and moon, their gravitational fields, tidal forces, solar wind... I imagine some plausible megastructures could be conceived that convert some of these to energy for our direct consumption. Certainly solar radiation. I've heard of space-based solar power anyway.

[Newbies_Kid]

Could they reach the planet through a long cable built above the South Pole? Is it feasible?

 

 

That's scary.

[minimoman]

Possibly a set of solar sails could work.

[Airbrush]

Myuncle: "No wind required, you start rotating them and they will never stop, energy problem solved, is it?"

 

For a turbine to generate power in space, just from spinning and no solar power, will require the friction necessary to generate energy. Once you start this spinning, the friction will cause the "wind turbine" to grind to a stop after not very long.

Edited October 4, 2011 by Airbrush

[CaptainPanic]

No wind required, you start rotating them and they will never stop, energy problem solved, is it?

Doesn't the idea of having wind turbines in a place without wind strike you as a bit strange?

Hydro power without water also never really caught on. Solar power in the dark also never really took off. Hell, it seems that coal power without coal doesn't work either.

 

Sorry to mock you a bit, but it's just not a very good a very bad idea.

[tom.redy]

myuncle,

your idea will not work because due to FRICTION between stator and rotor of generator it will stop.

there should be some energy input to generate energy, i.e you can convert energy from one form to another (energy neither be created and nor be destroy) .

you can't make perpetual machine.

[TonyMcC]

You would put energy into getting the turbine up to speed. As you take energy out of the turbine it would slow down and quite soon come to a stop. Even if it was 100 percent efficient you would only get as much energy out of it as you put into it. Being less than 100 percent efficient, you will get less energy out of it than you put into it before it comes to a stop.

Edited October 14, 2011 by TonyMcC

[Xittenn]

Doesn't the idea of having wind turbines in a place without wind strike you as a bit strange?

Hydro power without water also never really caught on. Solar power in the dark also never really took off. Hell, it seems that coal power without coal doesn't work either.

 

Sorry to mock you a bit, but it's just not a very good a very bad idea.

 

 

OP is clear on the 'no-wind' scenario, but the more evolved vision of this idea I think is pretty sound; granted trying to harness 'no-wind power' is kind of a bunk idea. The reality though, according to wiki, is that 6.7 billion tons of solar particles are ejected hourly at velocities of > 400km/h. I haven't the foggiest what this would directly translate to in terms of feasibly harnessable energy but I'm sure it is something worth investigating. A turbine fitted with the appropriate magnetic devices could prove beneficial in the future for providing us with useable forms of energy!

[TonyMcC]

There seems to be an idea that solar sails might provide enough energy to rotate the windmill. A big problem, it seems to me, is that somehow the main body of the windmill needs to be firmly fixed to something. Firstly, you need to stop the solar wind from pushing the windmill along. Secondly, if the solar wind could cause the armature to rotate it would drag the body of the windmill around with it because taking energy from the windmill would cause magnetic coupling between the rotor and the main structure. If the whole thing rotates together then no energy will be generated.

[Xittenn]

i) let it couple, achieve spin, change flank of sail, repeat . . . . . . . . (or something like that)

 

ii) space rocks or planets . . . . energy farms on mercury

 

iii) solar powered ion drive . . . . ions collected off of the sails

[tom.redy]

There seems to be an idea that solar sails might provide enough energy to rotate the windmill. A big problem, it seems to me, is that somehow the main body of the windmill needs to be firmly fixed to something. Firstly, you need to stop the solar wind from pushing the windmill along. Secondly, if the solar wind could cause the armature to rotate it would drag the body of the windmill around with it because taking energy from the windmill would cause magnetic coupling between the rotor and the main structure. If the whole thing rotates together then no energy will be generated.

 

wuz here and TonyMcC

 

if at all you installed so called space wind turbine it won't rotate because solar wind dose not have as much density as air,

The solar wind is a stream of charged particle it has very less density.

"At the orbit of the Earth, the solar wind has an average density of about 6 ions/cm3. This is not very dense at all!"(negligible)

the formula for wind turbine generation is

power=0.5*area*density*velocity³

hence your wind turbine will not get enough power to rotate.

[TonyMcC]

wuz here and TonyMcC

 

if at all you installed so called space wind turbine it won't rotate because solar wind dose not have as much density as air,

The solar wind is a stream of charged particle it has very less density.

"At the orbit of the Earth, the solar wind has an average density of about 6 ions/cm3. This is not very dense at all!"(negligible)

the formula for wind turbine generation is

power=0.5*area*density*velocity³

hence your wind turbine will not get enough power to rotate.

Absolutely agree - just giving one problem even if the sails were as large as ,say, an earth sized planet.

[Myuncle]

If on space you can make the turbine as heavy and big as you want, why the friction would stop it?

[TonyMcC]

If on space you can make the turbine as heavy and big as you want, why the friction would stop it?

 

The turbine may be weightless in space, but its mass is still there. If two surfaces come into contact with each other (say the shaft and the bearing shell) then the contact between them would be quite hard and for the time of the contact there would be friction. Another effect of mass could be imagined - If two large spaceships came together and you got in the way you would be squashed.

Edited October 16, 2011 by TonyMcC

[tom.redy]

Absolutely agree - just giving one problem even if the sails were as large as ,say, an earth sized planet.

that is not feasible. the cost of that sails will be very very high.

instead of that using solar panel on earth will be cost effective.(which are not use due to its cost).

[TonyMcC]

that is not feasible. the cost of that sails will be very very high.

instead of that using solar panel on earth will be cost effective.(which are not use due to its cost).

 

I don't think anyone actually thought it was feasible. Just people having fun bouncing ideas around (IMO)

[Xittenn]

wuz here and TonyMcC

 

if at all you installed so called space wind turbine it won't rotate because solar wind dose not have as much density as air,

The solar wind is a stream of charged particle it has very less density.

"At the orbit of the Earth, the solar wind has an average density of about 6 ions/cm3. This is not very dense at all!"(negligible)

the formula for wind turbine generation is

power=0.5*area*density*velocity³

hence your wind turbine will not get enough power to rotate.

 

I was thinking a lot closer to the sun, I'm still not completely convinced of futility.

 

Also, it isn't absolutely necessary that the coupling device be sails.

 

Giant stations could magnetically redirect ion flow! Just brainstorming.

[michel123456]

The whole idea looks like trying to extract energy from the rotation of the Earth itself.

[Xittenn]

I'm calculating about 5mW/m^2 close to the sun. Given the nature of the question I think that this is sufficient still, to keep the question alive. Just my opinion though!

 

That's milliWatts/meter^2 . .

 

There's also the carried ionization energy as well!

[CaptainPanic]

I'm calculating about 5mW/m^2 close to the sun. Given the nature of the question I think that this is sufficient still, to keep the question alive. Just my opinion though!

 

That's milliWatts/meter^2 . .

 

There's also the carried ionization energy as well!

A regular sized wind turbine on earth produces about 2 MW for a surface of about 1 hectare (I'm rounding it up). That means 200 W per m2.

In fact,wikipedia shows wind turbines can produce as much as 2 kW/m^2 (that's kiloWatts/meter^2).

 

So, on earth, the wind turbines produce, 40,000 to 400,000 times as much energy per surface area... why the hell would you go through all the trouble to put a wind turbine in space when on earth your wind turbine can be nearly half a million times more efficient, using standard existing and affordable technology?????????

 

[edited to add wikipedia link]

Edited October 17, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[Myuncle]

In theory on Earth to minimize friction you just need to make the blades heavier and bigger, but the problem is that the wind wouldn't be strong enough to spin them. In space all these problems would be gone.