<DrumBeat: July 13, 2009 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: July 14, 2009>
<Is Sustainable Development sustainable? The Oil Drum: Europe Oilwatch Monthly July 2009>

166 comments on High altitude wind power II: the reactions

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

Odysseus on July 13, 2009 - 1:35am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Energy or work is force over a distance. Now if each horse moves a distance and does something useful with that force, even though it is nearly in dynamic tension, you could harness the energy. If the silly mule vs. mule is replaces with a mule pulling a heavy load up an incline, you would have a better picture of what I believe the kite system would be doing.
So it is not 2 mules equally opposed. It is more like one mule pulling to raise a heavy load and using this mgh (mass*gravity accel*height) to generate electricity.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Black_Dog on July 13, 2009 - 12:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Work is force x distance. Power is work / unit of time, or, for a given force at constant speed, force x velocity, MOL.

You also need to consider how fast the process is working to estimate power output and it's power that we need to produce. Having a kite flying at high altitude where the wind forces are greater may not necessarily produce lots more poser, as there must be a way to capture that mechanical force while the velocity is high. Flying the kite from side to side isn't going to produce lots of (rotational) velocity at the base of the stem...

E. Swanson

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

166 comments on High altitude wind power II: the reactions

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version