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Right?
it a new year, and new ideas. To play with. If awes would like to toy with plasmas? Iāve been doing some reading?
&
Had a sneaky suspicion it existed? As I was looking out for a naboo starfighter? Then found this? Basically there are designs for magnetohydrodynamic areospike scramjets. I know helicopters generator huge voltages because of surface fiction. Was wondering if there was an way of reverse engineering it for awes? Iām getting closer to the prize? Had a mind to use an ionic inducer? In a design I had? Solid state with few moving parts. Consider casting it in two parts? Much like a big gaping mouth of a basking shark? Was thinking of using as part of a hoverboard? But thats another story? Plasma channel toyed with
if you guy can think of a use for such a device in AWES I love to hear?
I know there been a massive drive for aviation to go electric? Might even be best to use a carbon based ceramic? As it tend to handle discharges better? Also less likely to thermally degrade over time? The melting point of carbon is extremely high, so it safe bet. For discharging electrodes. Intumescent ceramic coating would also do the trick? Maurice wards starlite was one such material? Mineral resources are finite so best to use the carbon deposits we do have for better use? You have things like graphene and carbon nanotubes which are superconducting?
On the same patent search there quite a few articles 34 in the search I did? Iāve been curious for sometime? Though I share? As Iām just catch up with these people? Goes to show where about my thinking was?
In my design there was a particular compression ratios. Which helped increase what was given. so it was cycle much like a pulse jet? I knew if I could get the magnetics to twist that vast amount of energy could be produced? much like CMEs for the sun? Or the molten salt experiments trying to recreate magnetospheres. Millions of volts are possible?
I know the Dutch have built Electrostatic Wind-Energy Converter (EWICON)
I donāt know of a Awes version? But would be fun to try as a aerospike scramjet?
Iāve seen mention on the forum of self ascended vehicles? Especially in regards to flight paths? And use of thermals? Most recent @PierreB posted. That was using a drone launch. I doubt it would be any different to how a box kite flys? Though I wouldnāt have the foggiest where to begin? I know I could fabricate few of the parts? But it would need more Input than what I know I can do on my own? Throwing this one out there? To see if itās crackpot or not?
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Happy new yearā¦ (Iāll keep saying that till March)
OK Iāll bite - Plasma lift in AWES is a great idea.
Classic trustworthy _ All Ya gotta do isā¦ intro
Just fly really high.
Have the tether connected to ground (electrically too)
Thread some fine wires between open pocket sections of a kite, where the top and bottom skins would otherwise be.
Turbo lift for free.
Grand idea
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I was just pondering, thinking of all the AWE āgroup-selfiesā, has anyone kept a tally of HOW MANY PEOPLE have devoted HOW MANY YEARS of their working lives, to the pursuit of AWE? If we add up the number of employees from each AWE effort, what is the total number of people? Could we calculate (the number of companies) x (the number of employees per company) x (the number of years of activity) = total man-years (including WOman-years) devoted to AWE? I guess such a calculation could be done directly by someone who is a ādomain-expertā, or estimated from a guessed-at number of companies and an estimated average time in action, and average number of employees. How many man-years might this accumulate to? Should we include all the ājournalistsā who regurgitate company press-releases as ānewsā? All the cameras and film crews ādocumentingā the āprogressā? What about all the time spent by millions of people reading these articles, watching the videos, making their own videos about the videos?
Iām just going to throw out a very raw starting guess: 20 companies with 20 people each, in action for 5 years on average. That would be 2000 man-years, or 100 lifetimes of work (careers), and I think that is by far a low estimate. And that paltry 2000 man-year estimate, multiplied by a very low estimated $50,000 per man-year = $100,000,000, but weāve already heard that just a single company put up almost a billion dollars toward AWE, so these are VERY low estimates. Anyway, just in time for the new year, I wonder about total man-years and also total dollar spent, for what progress exactly? Where are we, compared to 15 years ago? Still getting ready to get ready? It āseemedā that we were ācloserā to AWE dominance in wind energy way back then, than now. 
Anyway, Iād be curious to know anyone elseās thoughts on this topic.
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To be realized, AWE needs a similar level of investment as air taxi development currently is getting.
Hi Doug, Iām not sure if this answer satisfies you. I think it could be a good answer if an architecture is studied enough to lead to success, and this BEFORE significant new expenses.
Hello Pierre: Not going to read that. I see no chance it has any useful information any more than anything else on Linked-in is solving any wind energy mysteries. AIR TAXIās: Sure! Like Joby? One of the first āAWE Companiesā to ājust give upā? And now they pursue āAir Taxisā? How many years have āair taxiāsā been pursued? How many are in use today? Is any rancher using one to get around his land? Anyone using one to get to work? Yes, āair taxiāsā ARE in some ways VERY SIMILAR TO AWE: Air taxis are mostly in the form of renderings and a very few barely-working prototypes. The VERY CONCEPT is flawed: TAXIS!!! Like there could be no private ownership of these supposed aircraft, and the ONLY use they could POSSIBLY HAVE is taking people to the airport! OMG! And how many people are falling for this??? An entire vehicle class with only a single use-case: flying over traffic to get rich people to the airport to catch a flight on an actual useful flying vehicle. Reminds me of AWE āFOR DISASTER RELIEFā! As in "Nobody in their right mind would ever pretend to use these for normal power generation, and the ONLY uses for the systems would be DISASTER RELIEF and WAR!!! OK sure. Disaster relief, war, and beating that pesky ground-level traffic TO GET TO THE AIRPORT!!! (Not a privately-owned āAir-Taxiā to take you out for dinner, or to go fishing. Forget a commute to work.) The ONLY use for an entire category of transportation, is ONLY to GET RICH PEOPLE TO THE AIRPORT!!! What about grocery shopping? What about travel to a nearby city? Nope, only taxis for hire - nobody will ever own their own personal air-taxi. I am just so amazed at the fantasies of the human race. So visionary, yet so limited in thinking! Another nascent technology, perpetually āright around the cornerā, just never quite here yet. All because someone figured out that, technically, you could fly, though not very efficiently, with a bunch of plastic model airplane propellers aimed upward. NEXTā¦
Great thank you, and happy new year to you!
Just priced things up this is where it get fun.
Just depends on how heavily duty it need to be?
Notched Crushed copper pipe. Is Ā£22 per length + time and labour
Or copper draft excluder which is Ā£45+ time and labour to notch
Alternative is conducive tape on a backing board. ( slug tape) For a similar price that will cover the main elements.
Eg. 0.8mm wire is 50m from b&q is Ā£13.33 per spool. Do shop around.
Frame can be made from a grow tent frame they range from Ā£30 and up.
Braided earthing cables 25m Ā£33.50 depending where you get it?
Contingency for extras like controllers, connectors, Ā£100- Ā£250 though may vary.
24000v voltage multiplier is abt. Ā£10
I have considered conductors woven in to the fabric? Provide the wires are hair width. A technique similar to tablet weaving but mechanised? Though seem like to much extra fuss.
Paint the kite skin in intumescent paint. Add food colouring to get that authentic kite feel. Though it will get blackened over time. It looks like it about Ā£18 per litre.
Paracords abt. Ā£25 for 80m though shop around you might be able to get it cheaper?
100 Zip ties Ā£2.50 a pack. If my math is right? Looking at a budget of about Ā£600 for a box kite scramjet. Full of electrostatic and magnetohydrodynamic.
Thought I best to keep it under the 150ft flight ceiling.
Safety concerns I might have is arc eye? Having been near welders? Not sure if there is a fabric that could be employed as shielding? Plasma and eyes are not best friends at few thousand volts. If I recall at you can see it for abt. 50-100miles? Hence the curtains many welder have? So might need a refractive air breathing membrane? Just depends on optical shadows?
Lifeās cheaper when you not in court. I reckon once all said and done numbers crunched? You have a product that might see a return? Just depends how cheep it can be made? Ideally no more that Ā£250. I understand that going to be a push?
This is just a rough breakdown in costs? Depend who attention is peaked? MOD contracts, Civil engineering ect. Will definitely determine potential returns? Iām sure they will love a kite test bed for new propulsion? Maybe one day have it doing laps of a field? As an open source project? Then someone taking up the mantle and pushing the technology further? I can get things started? Then just need a few to jump in and cover my flanks? Then follow up with designs of there own? Then that will get a market started? Awes then getting a lot more credit for creativity?
Took me a few days to go though product prices. I bow, then say your welcome. with out it sounding like Iām about to burst into Disney songs.
All good stuff!
The ram air kite train looks an awful lot like?
Honestly looks fun!
Just a question of how many links in the chain?
It might be wise to have good linkages and fasting points? So you could put and many or as little as you like? Climbers have carabiners. Linking each section. Couple as you go? Better chance of finding optimal strategy? Also makes it way easier to build in batches. Especially if the lines made with a jig? To set lengths?
If only we could make power from the mere naive pronouncements of clean energy nutcases, weād be all set!
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As your always looking for new power generation ideas?
They can be multi layer pcbs which can make it ultra compact. As far I know they have a high performance rating? I oiked an eye at it a while back. But nothing this big. The great thing is that whole design could be adjusted to become a superconducting motor. Liquid hydrogen or helium? Though nitrogen is more common. I had a idea a while back about a thermos flask being used like a motor. Then use it for wind energy. Though it boggle me how? The best I could come up with in mind was internal coils on the inside wall and stator poking out the top. Ready to be connected to whatever would be required? I even consider maglev components. Similar to a fluid bearings
I had to check Google patents look like they been working on similar ideas since the 1990s
There about 570 articles. More than my attention span could sift through. But theyāre there should you wish to know? If I recall one article I read a long time back the seen significant improvement in conductivity and over the output. One article said they got 800% more than baseline output with coolant than without coolant. Baseline would be something like a universal motor? That was some year ago? Been a while since I last looked? Not sure how current there numbers are?
I will leave this here should anyone wish to enquire?
Hi Jason: Thanks for the video of the single-rotor desktop-demo version of the floating SuperTurbineā¢, a concept invented by me:
It is possible for the water to act as the bearing, as shown above in Fig. 17 - the generator depends from the floating, rotating, cylindrical base, and is moored so as to counteract rotor torque
The concept is as simple as one could wish - a floating buoy with a projecting driveshaft and rotors.
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I can see how easy that would be to be to build.
Iām uncertain how well cryo cooled motor fits in to your design? What I had imagined looked very similar to the super turbine. Though I had thought it would look more like the aeromine than an ascending shaft? Essentially such as much air in with multiplayer tech? The wind only give a fraction but if you toy with the Aerodynamic? That could be increased by a number of factors?. What I had in mind was more the central unit? Aiming towards a GW.
The simpler, the easier to build. Still, one should expect to require several tries before one works anywhere near the way a designer hopes for or expects.
I really donāt get off into the weeds with the latest buzzwords - maglev bearings, cryo-cooling, 3-D printing, compressed-air-storage, onboard electrolysis, combined wind and solar, etc. etc. etcā¦ Mere distractions. This is not music where a writer is trying merely to be trendy. It is engineering and the school of hard knocks where you need things to be affordable and reliable.
I do not remember anything compelling about Aeromine. Do they have a 1 kW prototype? Why not? Know-nothing Big talkersā¦
Might want to start at one millionth of that output - try 1 kW.
Daydreaming thoughts aside.
Engineering rule of thumb K.i.s.s. The more you have the more that could go wrong.
There have be several attempts to understand how much energy they world need. neil degrasse Tyson, brain cox both have pondered this one.
Kw are all well and good. As they have be the most studied. In power production the three gorges dam combined. Capacity still donāt smash the Gw wall. With its 22500 MW. There have been questions about sustainability with copper reserves be where they are at?
We would need many more highly rated generator to meet demands.
This is only going to rise with the wanting to use more electricity to power home and cars.
Both Neil degrasse Tyson and Brian cox have on several occasions working out we would need billion of generators running to keep up with current demand. They both predicted that to meet demands, it would strain current infrastructure. Not only in cost, but time, labour and resources.
Simple put there not enough hours in the day to make a dent at current rates of development. It the beast that binds us.
At some point there must be a fusion of technology?
There nuclear option leave much to be hoped for. Even if the current waste created is repurpose into power cells. Using the alpha, beta and gamma principles into voltaic cells. To harness as much energy as we can from what has already been made.
My thought is evolving constantly. It just an illustration of the thought process. I was dreaming of something like the areomine back in 2018. Trying to piece bits together. That was an excise in futility. Gluing magnets to hex nuts. Thinking I make the corresponding coils. I would have learned something along the way? I donāt recommend using drawing board magnet. Picking them out of polycarbonate wasnāt fun. Just me try to access the easy to hand solution.
I quick worked out how lofty a gw was for me. Though still hoped to get somewhere close one day? Though it more than I can achieve on my own. The way we produce electricity will constantly need a radical rethink every once in a while? Superconducting components may just factor in? Or more radial stack of windings? Who knows?
Imaging a sky scrapers devoted one such idea? Then you might get some where close? Or a supersized wind energy project? The energy sector is full of contenders. It like you said many a time? Very few if any make it and go it to the mainstream.
Question is how simple does it need to be to be accepted?
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The worlds current energy needs, is something Iāve given a lot of thought too and time to read up on. OWC technology is much like the early days of steam. Thomas Newcomen and James watt respectively.
Iāve seen a version of pumped storage that used two mine shaft.
With something similar to OWC. If you can get a prefect seal on something like that? you have three points of contact which can be use to generator electricity. All you would see above ground is two turbines houses.
And one under ground chamber with reversible flow to a turbine hall. Think u bend but much larger. Classic demo would be home made spirt levels? Or how you change the levels of lighter fluid a lighter? In this case it would be GAOWC Gravity assisted oscillating water column? As long as it operate like the old cliff lifts? It should be fine? Basic you end up with two chamber of air and one of water? But this can be a compound system with multiple chamber over wide over area.
There is one issue with old mines? There are some that have often been used as landfill site. There is a Welsh slate mine In particular this happened to. So depending the mine clean up cost would need to be considered?
Coal mines might not be the best option and there hydrocarbons tend to leach into surroundings water causing contamination issues. This would also be an issue for other mines as well where heavy metal extraction has taken place. Donāt even try the salt mines risk of huge substance. A lake in Southern states in the great USA. got breached and the whole lake, gators and all ended up down the mines.
I agree that an ocean based gravity system would be better. Especially if acting like a submarine? There no end to how much that could be scaled up? Not suggesting getting some old Russian submarines to do the job. having a system like an ROVs might be beneficial? You also have things like
So I question whereabouts the curve is?
Find out about technology like this? is the first step along the way, to actually understanding it, and achieving something!
Anyone else wish to chime in please do?
If you are submerging some heavy object in sea you have the basic issue that as density of water is so high, you need a lot of material for ballast compared to onshore. Eg a cheap material concrete has density 2.4 though 1.0 of that mass is Ā«lostĀ» to waterās own density of 1.0.
You dont need a tower though because you could just float, so possibly material saved.
Rough seas is an issue though dimminishing with scale.
Grid connection may be a large issue. You want these things in close proximity to cities. Subsea adds to the cost.
Hydro drag could become an issue if you go too deep, though I expect that one is manageable.
Anchoring is a concern opposite to wanting really deep water and also grid connectivity. This would depend on what kind of depths you end up with.
I would think the greatest challenge though would be cost. Offshore is inherently costly. And you have some good onshore alternatives, eg batteries, pumping hydropower, oversizing energy production etc.
The motor looks extremely good on paper. I do wish that they can deliver. Though for me any new fossile fuel based motor in 2023 is moot. So it would depend on the efficiency of propulsion that they could get. I doubt they could beat a propeller, and though their list of benefits is pretty long, you could say that the props probably was never a huge concern for boat owners.
Hydrodynamics, like aerodynamic informs potential design. There could be many ways to use a submersible? Hydrodynamic drag isnāt a problem if you allow for the current to unfurl the lines. Using the powers of the current to generate electricity. Think giant fishing rod? Then, you may come somewhere close? As far as I understood submersible? The fact the water can be used as the ballasts is one of it major advantages. It only takes mere seconds to adjust for buoyancy. It can be completely automated? Reduce human involvement? No risk to a crew at Depth if no crew is present? Iām aware of anchors that can be used against the current?
Mainly used to prevent excessive drifting?
I see no reason why the drop weights could not just look like large fishing weights? Even with props/turbines attached to motors to generate electricity? So effective making a hybrid system? Especially if the winches are used to generate electricity as well? This not only is this entirely possible, it plausible. Undoubtedly there going to be some cost involved? If the can make oil rigs? they can do this! Especially using either a large peloton wheel or Francis turbine during its descent phase. It should be easier enough to retrieve as you can have compressed air bag inflate and deflate as and when required? This can be automated. With minimal interaction from top side crews? It means that manufacturing and maintenance can be prioritised? It also means that things can be optimise for depth?
As far as Iām concerned I see it as a win? Even ship yard would be able to build the required components. Brings us back to those power ships. That could just rock up and provide light to many lives? Just depends on how big a well deck you have? Surely better to build a fleet of these than have billions of units that may only have a short shelf life of 10-15 years?
It could be one part of the energy strategy? As fare as I know some of the largest ships can have a 100 year shelf life? If well maintained? On the economy and practical level? It could be value for money?
Depending how the technology is built? It could incorporate multiple systems. Including OWC, Teng, (triboelectric nano generator) solar and wind. There is much room on the party boat for a platform in to energy research! In certain regards it could rival hydroelectric power? Even the three gorges dam?
I know Iāve seen discussions on the forum of kite drawn submersible? Also shipping making gains using a kite instead of sails? That too can be turned it to a generator system?
There are plenty of ships cuing up to find the reapers torch? In places like Turkey and Chittagong. It just a question of finding a dry dock big enough? To retrofit and recycle them? Heck they can be stripped back to bare minimum if require? fixtures and fittings sold to pay for the refitted? All fairly standard practice. Iāve seen when they have had to cut holes inside the ship just to repair an engine. This is not outside the realm of possibility?
As alway there will be an element of risk. It could get messy should things get tangled up? With a great deal of care and consideration? that can be minimised or eliminated completely?