ralph.ewig

Floating Wind Turbine - Using an inflatable structure to house a wind turbine, startup Alteros Energy lofts its wind turbines to jet-stream altitudes where winds are plenty and highly predictable. While the resulting electricity is still more expensive than what can be accomplished with a conventional wind-turbine, the approach is much cheaper than the use of a portable generator. This makes it ideal for quickly establishing a reliable power source in remote locations, which unlike a generator will not require a continuous resupply of consumables. 

Providing power in remote locations used to mean lugging a generator and fuel wherever you planned on setting up. But Alteros’ solution is more elegant. Inflate a balloon with a small turbine inside and loft it to 1,000 feet, where the wind is much stronger and more constant. That altitude means that the inflatable wind turbine is able to generate twice as much power as its ground-based contemporaries.