Wind Turbines On High Voltage Power Line Towers Wins NextGen Contest |
4 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Wind Power | May 19, 2009 | |
I’m sure many environmentalists have passed power line towers while cruising in vehicles and wondered aloud, “Why can’t we just throw some wind turbines up there?” In fact, earlier last year, Ericsson unveiled the first-ever cell phone tower with a vertical-axis wind turbine integrated. If we can do it in cell phone towers, why not transmission towers?
That’s the question two architects and an engineer from France used as the starting point for their “Wind-It” concept — a a design to place wind turbines inside existing high-voltage electricity pylons. They’re also the winners of the 2009 Metropolis Magazine Next Generation Prize Challenge: “FIX OUR ENERGY ADDICTION.” $10K was given to the team to take their idea to the next level. From the article,
The team estimates that if a third of France’s high-voltage electricity towers were renovated with turbines, they could rival the power generation of two nuclear reactors, or about 5 percent of the country’s energy needs. “The genius of the proposal is that it solved probably the biggest issue of wind production,” says Alexandros Washburn, New York’s chief urban designer and a judge for the Next Generation competition, “which is where to locate these very large structures. By incorporating them into transmission towers, which are already located and of the same scale as wind towers, the idea of how it looks on the landscape is very cleverly integrated.”
Of course, there are some severe hurdles to conquer before such a project could even prove feasible.
The general consensus was that the adaptive-reuse model would be tricky to justify financially. Electricity towers aren’t built to accommodate wind turbines, so they would likely require structural reinforcement, which could be either simple or prohibitively complex. The turbines would generate nom-inal energy—enough to power anywhere from one room in a house to 20 houses a year depending on size and wind speeds. They’re also more expensive up-front than their propeller counterparts, in large part because there isn’t much of a market for them.
Still, the winners feel confident that integration could one day be possible — and we’re excited to hear of others pushing this idea to the next level. To read more on the winning design, jump here.
Loading ...
Albert Brendel; said,
How coincidental…
This is an excerpt from an email solicitation I made to VAWT companies last month..
“I personally have believed ,that if an effective VAWT could be developed, our nation already has a grid in which they could be employed in massive numbers, which could reclaim vast amounts of un-tapped wind energy with zero environmental impact.
This grid is the existing hi-tension power lines which cross every section of our country.
These grids consist of hollow towers in which VAWT’s could easily be installed. The installations could be made high enough to not be a safety hazard to people or animals. These towers are placed in corridors which create artificial wind paths which can only help to produce wind flows. Since the towers already exist, approval for the addition of the VAWT’s should be easily obtained. A separate power line could be added to each tower with periodic “step-up” points to add cumulated generated energy to the grid. “
Uncle B said,
We must plan factories closer to power sources and Dorm-style operations, including ultra-modern, Electrically and hydraulically assisted, computer driven processes, as is the success formula in China must be replicated here! We can no longer afford to live in the Capitalists play-ground where factories are located by corporate factors, and must evolve and locate factories, reactors, and labor, for cost advantage, and production advantage, to compete with the increasingly effective Asian model!That, or back to the bow and arrow, and stone huts in the fields! Beleive this! Take a good hard, long look at Detroit City, Legacy of unregulated corporate exploitation for two hundred years! Not a good legacy! The Asians kick ass compared to this bankrupt corrupt mess!
Curt Coccodrilli said,
I read this article in disbelief as I have thought of the same idea here in the USA (PA to be specific) for many years. I have over a mile of high transmission lines on my own property (PPL), with a wind farm on the same mountain ridge (totally unrelated), but in different directions. The idea to marry both technologies fascinated me & I congratulate the 3 French men for taking their concept to the next level !! Maybe someday this will turn a mountain top eyesore into a great technology. A question I have for anyone out there is can you put energy from the turbines directly into the transmission lines on the tower ?
Thanks,
Curt
Wind Turbines On High Voltage Power Line Towers Wins NextGen Contest said,
[...] [...]