Technology

Saw this in Big Hero Six. It's a crazy concept. Hopefully it works.

When wind speed doubles, the energy it carries increases eightfold,

Edit: I'm wrong, see edit below!

Huh? Kinetic energy increase is square, not cubic.

KE=1/2 m v^2

So every doubling of speed should increase the available kinetic energy by 4 times, not 8. 3 times the speed is 9 times the energy. Granted there are probably some efficiency gains in excess of this at the low end, ~~but as a rule that's just wrong.~~

Edit: Cool, I learned something new! I neglected to consider it in terms of power, just thought about kinetic energy.

So something like: KE = 1/2 m v^2

= 1/2 ( rho V) v^2

= 1/2 ( rho A d) (d/t)^2

= 1/2 rho A d^3 1/t^2

Where P = KE/t

Thus:

P = 1/2 rho A (d/t)^3

= 1/2 rho A v^3

Lots of other aspects I'm sure I have wrong, but I see how the cubic came to be.

Cities are going to start looking like San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6) soon. Seems like an excellent idea though. If it really gets pursued, I wonder how it will interact with air travel, since I would imagine you would need no fly zones around these, at least at a certain height.

Very cool, and definitely worth switching too where it makes sense.

But there is no mention of cost, so it probably won't be cost competitive with regular wind for a while, which sucks.

But the silver lining is that this is among the first of this type of power generation, and it will only get better and more efficient as the tech is built upon.

This is totally breaking loose and heading toward the nearest city in the final act.

Shira, get me my god damned tea!

Very interesting development. Especially that it can be deployed in disaster zones to provide energy - if there is a strong foundation to anchor it, probably.