30thApril
Highway Windfarms
The next energy harvesting idea is using the already clogged speedway (highway,parkway,etc) to convert the wind created by the passing cars, trucks, etc to electricity. This idea has been around for a while, but I think what makes this recently example so specially is how they go about doing it, using overhead turbines that collect the energy. We could use this energy to power the lights along the freeway, but the upfront cost would be pretty large, especially if we plant to have these every 10 to 100 miles apart.
Joe (ASU) posted on the Archinect schoolblog his idea (picture above) as well as other diagarms explaining how he came up with this idea and how we can use the power. He explains how harvesing this power of cars driving by is much like a parasite on a organism, we would harvest free power from the speeding cars (minus the upfront cost of installing these turbines). I find this project even more interesting because they want to install them in the phoenix area.
As some of you know, I am on vacation in the phoenix area. I actually just drive by where they would be installing this wind turbine near the 51 and Osborn Road. I also been taking some pictures of how people are using solar power here, but since there are a lot of condos and apartments out here with HOA (Homeowners Associations) they REFUSE to use Solar Panels or let renters/buyers install them! I just can not get over these, its FREE POWER, granted their is a cost assocatied with the solar panels, but you can save money and have them not only pay for themselves over time but save money!
Anyway back to the wind farm highway, Joe also did some calculations showing how the average vehicle passes by at 70MPH, so if you take a 10MPH baseline, each wind turbine would produce 9,600KwH of energy annually! (enough to power Joes 700sft apartmnet!). I must hand it to Joe if you get this up and running I will be sure to fly back out here and take some pictures of this futurist highway wind turbine.
antics says 1st May @ 9:53
Bob (principle of Boston Engineering) and I were talking about wind once and he raised an interesting point to noodle over. None of the green energy is really *free* other than its there to harvest whether you harvest it or not. All of the energy ends up somewhere so if we take some power out of the wind on a hilltop then the trees that are downwind experience a weaker breeze. Trees require wind to blow them around to strengthen their trunks (same idea as muscle - tear the cellular structure and it grows back stronger), and many plants rely on wind to spread their seeds around. Now this isn’t to say that a few windmills are going to bring the earth (as we know it) to its knees and there are plently of issues with burning coal too so don’t think this is an anti-green argument. It is an interesting point to ponder though.