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Innovator patents floating wind turbine

Posted at 2:55 PM on 10 Dec 2007

Traditional wind turbines have gotten a bad rap from NIMBY folk and bird advocates, but innovator Mac Brown thinks he can sway the haters. Meet the Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS), a 100-foot-wide, helium-filled turbine tethered to the earth by a copper cable. Hovering at 1,000 feet, MARS is capable of producing 10 kilowatts of energy. "Picture a spinning Goodyear blimp," says Brown. The governments of India and Pakistan have expressed interest in MARS, which was patented in October. As for the birds and the bats: "This thing is bigger than a house," says Brown. "A bird can see it and a bat can sense it."

source: The New York Times
see also, in Gristmill: An interesting approach to bird-safe wind power

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Comments: (5 comments)

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wheee

wind power brings me joy

by Will at 7:53 PM on 10 Dec 2007

not NIMBYs

please, stop with the NIMBY propaganda. 90% of the people who object to being yanked forcibly from their homes, or to seeing wilderness or their private property destroyed DERIVE NO BENEFIT AT ALL from the power being generated.

the NIMBYs are the gluttonous, McMansion jerkoffs in cities like LA who demand unlimited cheap power for their 6,800 square foot houses and their 52 inch TVs and sub-zero fridges, no matter how much habitat is destroyed, or how many rural lives are permanently ruined.

sorry, people need to pay the real cost of their consumption, whether it's greenhouse gases, child sweatshop labor, poisoning farmworkers and watersheds, smog, mining deaths or otherwise. the fact that these costs are socialized while the benefits are privatized is the problem.

www.stopgreenpath.com

the greenest energy is that which you needn't ever produce.

by stopgreenpath at 11:15 AM on 11 Dec 2007

Yeah, but at night?

While the MARS system may be an improvement over arrays of turbine blades wider than a jetliner's wingspan, to dismiss bird collision risks by saying "birds can see it" overlooks the fact that most bird migration - and thus most collisions with turbines, communication towers and other objects - occurs at night, when birds can't see much of anything. The units also will have to be lighted to prevent aircraft collisions, and we know such lights disorient and attract migrant birds, especially in fog, mist or rain.

As for bats sensing them - bats can sense conventional turbines, as well, but they are nevertheless drawn to them in large numbers, and have been killed by the thousands at sites in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Until the wind industry undertakes rigorous, peer-reviewed studies of bird and bat mortality - something they've resisted thus far - I'm inclined to view such (ahem) airy dismissals with a grain of salt.

by Owlbander at 11:52 AM on 11 Dec 2007

Speaking For The Non-Humans ...

we get absolutely no benefit at all from electricity generation, but pay virtually all of the environmental costs. So we strongly object to any wind generators in any natural areas. Please put them where the generated electricity is being used, not in our homes. Thank you.

by Wolverine at 1:10 PM on 11 Dec 2007

A bad rap from NIMBY folk and bird advocates?

I wonder why you say:
"Traditional wind turbines have gotten a bad rap from NIMBY folk and bird advocates,..."

This didn't appear in the New York Times article and I wonder why you bring it in here. If the remark is your own opinion, you need to be informed that it's untrue.

If you can demonstrate it is true,it could be the interesting subject of a separate article.

Anthony Henry Smith ahsfolkapl@aol.com www.fishkillridgecommunityheritage.org 30 Adriance Ave. Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

by AnthonyHenrySmith at 2:17 PM on 11 Dec 2007

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