Airborne Wind Turbines

In my first phone call with 2GreenEnergy associate Dr. Peter Lilienthal, he made a remark I’ll never forget:  “If you don’t care what you pay for it, Craig, I’ll find you all the renewable energy you could possibly want.” He had recently left his extremely senior position at NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to move into the private sector, at a point in which his software was already used to integrate variable resources, like solar and wind, in the grid systems of more than 80 countries around the globe.

Here’s an article that represents the poster child for Peter’s economic concept: airborne wind turbines.

Its author marvels, “So far no single design has dominated the nascent airborne turbine scene.”  Really?  Could that be because no one cares, since the concept itself has exactly zero merit, financially?

The piece continues:  “The wind speed factors add up to an amazing difference.  The untapped wind resources that this opens up are enormous. Wind turbines placed on the earth’s surface can only extract energy at a rate of 400 Terra Watts (sic) while high altitude wind power can provide at least 1800 TW.”

The article, and the integrity of its author, would have benefited from a simple admission: Yes, there may be 4.5 times more wind energy at extremely high altitudes, but reaching them and bringing useful energy to us Earthlings down below is many hundreds of times more expensive. It’s not a bargain; it’s a preposterously bad idea.

Btw, I received this from a friend who found it on “oilprice.com.” Could there be a reason the oil industry wants to identify and promote outrageously stupid ideas in the renewable energy industry?  Hmmm.