Lmao isn’t that the thing you can see on a lot of solarpunk pictures?
It’s kind of funny how China is now showing what solar punk would entail in practice, and turns out it needs a massive industrial base as a prerequisite.
Spoiler: it will most likely never make a dent to the current wind industry.
If you actually read the article, you’ll see that it’s not meant to replace the current wind industry.
Reading the article?!? The Internet has no time for that, sir! /s 🤣
Joke aside, the article says:
“Once these systems are built in large numbers, the power they produce could be as cheap as from normal wind turbines.”
My answer is: don’t hold your breath. I’m in that industry and it will take a veeeeeery long time until the costs are on par with current systems.
I’m referring to this bit:
Developers say airborne power generation system ideal for disaster relief and isolated locations, such as islands and oilfields
The goal is to set these up in remote areas or for temporary measures where traditional windmills would be impractical.
I know. Many are trying to do similar things. But this concept will take a very long time until it works well enough.
Historically, China has a pretty good track record bringing this kind of stuff to fruition faster than people expect.
That’s partially a cognitive biais. You mostly remember the ones that survived and forget about the plethora that didn’t.
For instance: China, like many countries, also has lots of h2 trials that failed.
Time will tell. But saying that costs will be equivalent to that of conventional wind turbine is putting a lot of pressure on"will", which is doing all the heavy lifting…
I never said every project China does succeeds. You have to try lots of things when you’re pushing the envelope, some will be dead ends. However, China has managed to make a lot of things others abandoned succeed.
Can we use these all around Trump’s golf courses?
I’m sure those windmills will keep him cool
Something so unstable couldn’t possibly replace wind turbines. Unless it can handle being tossed about in hurricane force winds.
Maybe a benefit of this style would be they could just deflate them during hurricanes.
Yeah, that does seem to be the prevailing wisdom.
