Wind Energy Nuclear UFOs
The Windmill
April 15, 2007
I tried in vain to get in touch with Nicolas Hulot. I finally sent him an open letter, which remained unanswered. Ah, well... I did receive a letter from his team, full of ... wind, empty words. It said that our TV ecologist "was very sensitive to the nuclear issue".
I wasn't talking about stopping all research in the nuclear field, in fusion, but about exploring the non-neutronic fusion paths, which are non-polluting.
I looked into the scientists surrounding Hulot. I didn't find any physicists, only biologists focused on environmental studies. I said I was ready at any time to give a presentation to brief them on the prospects offered by the results obtained on the Z-machine, in 2005-2006. No response.
I wrote to Hulot again. I offered to write him a complete book on all the new energy production systems. I told him I was ready to do it without making a single cent, without even having my name appear. Think about it, I'm annoying: I'm interested in UFOs! Everyone who knows me knows that this is not idle talk. I was ready to start working immediately: texts, drawings, scientific and technical explanations.
No response.
I'll cite, at random, one of these fantastic new ideas, simple: the exploitation of wind energy at high altitude, between 5,000 and 10,000 meters. The wind is stronger at high altitude than at ground level. This will not surprise anyone. The Earth's surface slows down, by simple friction, the movement of air masses. At 5,000 meters, the wind speed is on average twice as strong and this factor can reach three at higher altitudes. Now, the power that can be drawn from a wind turbine varies as ... the cube of the wind speed.
- Factor 2: 8 times more energy - Factor 3: 27 times more energy
Let's be more precise. The extracted power is also proportional to the air density. At 5,000 meters, it is half of that found at ground level. Therefore, by placing the wind turbine at 5,000 meters, with a wind on average twice as strong, the power obtained would be 8 x 0.5: four times more.
At 10,000 meters, the air density is a third of that found at ground level. But the wind intensity is greater. One could still expect a factor of 7 or 8. Etc...
What converts wind energy into electricity? A wind turbine? Yes, but not the one you are used to seeing:
The Helicodyne
The idea is not mine. You will find the details on the site:
http://www.skywindpower.com/ww/index.htm
These people have been working on such projects for a long time. The next tests will focus on stations producing 200 kW, aiming for 10 MW in the future. This idea is brilliant in its simplicity. The lightness is absolute. Rotors made of fibers, wound, generators, structure made of carbon fiber. From time to time, devices benefit from work on high-altitude kites, carried out in the USA. It is then not about producing electric current, but about keeping in the air radar "early warning", long-range surveillance. These are kites we are not too used to. How does it work? By autorotation. You will find the mechanism of autorotation described precisely, explained from the ground up in my upcoming comic book "La Passion Verticale" which the company Eurocopter will publish in 10,000 copies for the Bourget Air Show. Unfortunately, you will not be able to purchase such albums, which are not made to be sold, but given by the company as a corporate gift ( during the "professionals" days of the fair ). The album will be released in four languages: French, English, German, Spanish. It is currently being colored on computer.
Later it will be translated into 28 languages by
http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com
As there have been many delays, the team must focus on this paper edition ( everything must be finalized by the end of the month! ). But once it is launched, a pdf version will be available on the "blog of a hundred years" of Eurocopter, viewable on screen, downloadable for free, in color and black and white ( for printing ). Angèle Sorba, from Eurocopter's communications department, is behind this nice project. It was she who invented the title of the album: "La Passion Verticale".
Some sample pages, for now, on the Savoir sans Frontières website
Back to these generators positioned at high altitude. A reader asked me: but how do you place these electricity production systems at 5,000 or 10,000 meters altitude!?
Simple: they are also kites. When you see the comic book, you will understand better. With a given wind regime, by positioning the device at the altitude where its speed is the strongest, the captured energy is dedicated to two functions.
*- Keeping the machine in the air. *
*- Producing electricity. *
The machine has four rotors. By adjusting the pitch of the blades, we will adjust the attitude. With strong wind, the percentage of energy dedicated to lift will decrease. We will "pitch up" the device. The goal is to aim for the highest possible rotor rotation speed.
If the wind drops, the automatic control system will put the machine "flat".
Mass-produced, these devices could equip many countries. Size is not an issue. It is planned to build devices with 30-meter diameter rotors, whose technology is perfectly mastered ( it is the one of the Russian Mil giant helicopters ). In the air, not only is the wind stronger, but the solar exposure is more intense. These "kite" stations could produce electricity not only with the wind, but also with the sun. When the wind becomes insufficient, they could simply be brought down to the ground, like regular kites, or kept at altitude by feeding them with electrical energy. The efficiency can reach 60%. I am beginning to know well the technology of the helicopter. I am participating in the development of a prototype.
**The H2S. At the controls, Daniel Michau, test pilot. On the right Jacky, its designer **
The helicodynes do not need all the sophisticated technology of the rotor heads of real helicopters, with their cyclic pitch variation, etc. The blades are fixed with elastic systems "sphériflex" in composite material.
When flying in a helicopter, the pilot's and passengers' lives are completely dependent on the mechanics. On a helicopter, no one has a parachute: people would be shredded by the rotor. There are high maintenance costs. On the helicodyne these problems disappear, especially if these devices are positioned in sparsely populated areas. These stations would be ideal for deserts (especially the deserts located inland like the Gobi, where there are very strong winds). These stations benefit from a very high stability, the rotors behaving like gyroscopes. Those who have flown in helicopters know this well. The rotating wings withstand gusts very well. In case of positioning at 10,000 meters, above the cloud layer, the helicodynes would benefit from ... jet streams, straight up. They would ignore the meteorological disturbances affecting the lower layers, like cumulonimbus.
It is possible to increase the efficiency by equipping these stations with two systems: horizontal rotors ensuring lift and square turbines, with horizontal axes, fully focused on power production. In my opinion, this would be preferable with very strong winds, like the jet streams. If we rely only on the rotors, the rotation speeds achieved, under high incidence, could cause the blades to break due to centrifugal force. Simple, fascinating research. Also subjects for theses, at a time when in our country physics is in free fall.
In France, in this field, we are simply absent. There and in many others. We are about to build ITER. Do you know which brilliant physicist, in the end, decided to support this project?
Professor Jacques Chirac
Check it out. It's perfectly and tragically true.
Considering all these new, alternative energy production systems, one might say "what are we waiting for?". But we have a TV ecologist, this dear Hulot. Go to his foundation's website. You will find ... T-shirt sales, in the "boutique" section. .
Who is he working with? With this brave [Hubert
My reader must say "here we go, he's attacking everyone. After Hulot, it's Reeves' turn ".
It's because we have vainly tried to approach Reeves, for the Z-machine, for neutron-free fusion.
Vox clamat in deserto
Reeves, like Hulot, is just a TV ecologist. Read: "He supports wildlife protection associations". Well, of course. In other words, it's Brigitte Bardot, plus a beard. He has vaguely interested himself in the concept of the Z-machine, Z-pinch, but obviously hasn't grasped its essentials. Plasmas are not his thing. And you can't both be in the media and maintain your science level at the top.
As he is bald and has a nice beard, many people classify him in the category of scientists. When a show on the Night of the Stars, journalist Claude Sérillon once gave him a blow of incense between the eyes:
- You are a great astrophysicist...
Ah, right. What did the brave Hubert produce? It's more of a science representative, who knows how to perfectly take a friendly look by squinting his eyes.
Unfortunately, he is Hulot's scientific advisor.
I stop. It's not good to attack current idols. The public wouldn't understand.
We have fought for a year to get support from the Russians regarding these projects of research development focused on non-polluting fusion, which does not create neutrons, or very few, through secondary reactions (Bore Hydrogen path), and we have obtained it (cost of such research: 50 million euros, which is the two hundredth of ITER). We have had a letter signed by a leading figure in fusion research in Russia for three months now. One could even say "the" Russian leading figure. But, for this letter, we have no ... recipient! Admit it, it's a scandal. When we approached the presidential candidates, we encountered the usual nonsense, the standard responses:
- If I am elected, know that I will make sure that researchers can have the means that allow them to ... bla bla bla ...
Damn it ...
Wind, more wind. Hulot is blowing wind. Reeves is blowing wind. Politicians are blowing wind. When you try to reach these heights of political or media worlds, you find only ... air currents. While thousands of projects could be undertaken, studied, pushed forward at very low cost.
Good grief, when will you understand that our politicians, when they don't consider populist measures, sound like completely hollow gourds. None of them is able to mention the real problems of the future: the fantastic needs of India and China. Go and talk to these people, who have just emerged from terrible famines, about ... decline, energy savings, frugality.
You need to go further than a "papa" ecology, where you seriously weep over the protection of our beautiful natural wealth by recommending double glazing and reducing vehicle power.
This is just one facet of a vast general problem, immensely more serious and important.
You need to take all the problems of the planet as a whole, find ways to produce energy, massively, to satisfy the legitimate needs of people. We should create:
Energy Without Borders
That would be smart, for Hulot, Reeves and company. But imagination doesn't seem to overwhelm them, these two. Reeves listens to himself think and Hulot sells T-shirts.
These strange rotor machines represent one solution among dozens of others. You could place many in the deserts, north of China, in arid regions.
Deserts are energy mines
It's not me who invented it. Solar towers have already been tested successfully in Spain.
**The Spanish installation **
They plan to build them in Australia. One thousand meters high. Moored cylinders, which are nothing more than ... chimneys. The powerful upward current activates air turbines.
Go to:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_solaire
Below is the Australian solar tower project ( deserts, for them, are not lacking ):
**The Australian project. One thousand meters high, 200 megawatts. **
This solar tower system has fantastic qualities. The disk (green) represents a greenhouse, where the air temperature rises to 80 degrees. But, under the absorbing plate (black) located below, you can place a large basin filled with water, which does not evaporate, since it is isolated from the outside world. This water accumulates heat during the day and releases it at night. Since the temperature at altitude drops, the solar tower has a better efficiency ... at night!
But that's not all. They have considered bracing these chimneys with vanes, which make the warm air rise ... rotating. Thus, a artificial, but fixed tornado is created! Computer simulations have been performed. Configured this way, these chimneys would also be hot air cannons serving as heat exchangers, sending hot air to several thousand meters altitude.
The aeronautical equivalent of a ... lightning rod.
In the south of the United States, the damage caused by tornadoes becomes more important every year. Their cause: a strong thermal imbalance. A distribution of solar towers would introduce a thermal re-equilibrium, the solar towers sending hot air to altitude. Tornadoes would be less likely to form in the areas equipped with such devices. If these tornadoes were to form, they would ... bypass the protected areas, which would provide them ... less energy to feed them. They would follow the lines of higher instability.
There are plenty of ideas like this. Do you find them in the mouths of our politicians, real windmills of words? Do you find them with our two TV ecologists: Hulot and Reeves? No.
I am beginning to think that these two are complete nonsense, that they are playing for their egos. Reeves, aging, has tried to reorient himself since astrophysics is in crisis. He has sold the Big Bang for half a century, but sees himself poorly playing the role of a representative of dark energy. His philosophies have run out. So, ecology, the protection of small animals, why not?
For whom does Hulot work, for what? His fights are well targeted. He carefully avoids what is disturbing. I fear there is nothing to get from this good guy. Brigitte Bardot defended baby seals. Hulot covers a wider range. He defends just causes, raises alarm cries. Indeed.
But, like Reeves, both of them are on carefully marked cycling paths.
As for our politicians, they have long since lost their brains or ideas. They are just windmills of words, their eyes fixed on the barometer of polls. --- ---
