Ten years ago people didn’t give too much attention to green energy because we thought that we can’t destroy our planet. Well, something good happened and we started to realize that the Earth is damaged by CO2 emissions and researchers began to develop new systems to harness solar, wind and wave power. A company that decided to create a visionary wind turbine is Magenn and their idea is called MARS.
MARS stands for Maggen Air Rotor System and according to their developers, this wind power system is very different and much better than conventional wind turbines and other systems based on fossil fuels. The benefits of Magenn’s system are the possibility of a global deployment, lower costs and improved operational performance, and I guess that the environmental advantage goes without saying.
The MARS is basically a balloon which generates electricity by rotating around a horizontal axis when interacts with winds. The wind turbine is anchored at about 1000 feet above ground level, higher than any other wind turbine which means that it can be placed anywhere in the world, in order to catch stronger winds. The MARS wind turbine is controlled with the help of the Magnus Effect that gives to the balloon additional lift.
Maggen’s MARS can be deployed rapidly without the help of cranes and towers, and also it can be deflated equally fast as deploying. Now, that MARS is finally being tested in an airship hangar in North Carolina, I really hope that Magenn take the wind turbine is mass production, but they need customers who will not be very hard to find.
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May 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
ingenious
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May 16th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I guess this might have lower impact on the local environment than traditional wind turbines - less noise and less intrusive.
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May 16th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This is a DECREASE from the previous wind power designs
if you look at the chart - which has been shrunken down to avoid people from noticing
you can clearly see that the turbine at 125m produces 5000kW as a pose to this stupid baloon which stands at 330m and produces a modest 2 - 1000kW
this is NOT an upgrade
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Nick reply on May 17, 2008 3:51 pm:
Not how it works. The height/kw ratio you speak of is irrelevant. The point of this invension is to get the turbine up in the air so it can be deployed in places where ground winds are not stong enough to make a traditional turbine practical. True, the graph’s overall composition is misleading, you have a point there. And maybe ‘upgrade’ isn’t the right word. But this balloon is suposed to be used in places where a more efficiant turbine will do. It’s a great design. Plus, it’s new. It’s efficiancy is bound to increase.
I like the way it’s mobile, too. So cool.
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May 16th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Great! I appritiate that people finally realize what’s happening, and they use money and knowledge to achieve something new and clean! And from design point of view, it looks also light and semi-transparent - which is important to me to avoid “visual pollution”. I mean I don’t want to see something allways covering part of the sky!
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May 17th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Ian,
The benefits of the new design go much further than just the total output per turbine. Think about it, they clearly did not design this turbine expecting to replace each standard wind turbine with a balloon. The point is that they can be placed in areas that the usual design cannot, which means they are harnessing power previously untapped. Not to mention the design is cheaper and more easily deployed, so each one does not have to be able to replace a conventional turbine to be economical.
They are not an upgrade in the sense that you use the word. But that sense is also irrelevant…
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May 17th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Ian is an idiot. Traditional wind turbines are large, loud and are complicated (expensive) to build and install. This seems to be relatively cheap and simple to build and install, as well as quieter and less intrusive for locals.
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wind guy reply on May 20, 2008 8:48 am:
Actually, modern wind turbines are quite simple. They are also very quite and easy to install. Think of how long it takes to build a nuclear power station (decades) vs. a couple days for a large wind turbine or weeks for a turbine farm. Wind turbines do rely on some (expensive) power electronics to improve the power quality, but that will be necessary for any intermittent power source. Gearboxes also are a mature technology but are necessary to produce 50/60hz power, which is something the balloon will also need, unless it spins at 1500 rpm but that might create some funny dynamics.
The floating balloon may be a very good idea, but it has yet to be proven. Hopefully it can be done. Since humans will consume any amount of energy they can, all research is useful.
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May 18th, 2008 at 4:40 am
It’s shape is quite complex. I’m wondering, does it naturally face the right direction to harness the wind?
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Scott reply on May 19, 2008 12:22 am:
Excellent point, linuxamp. I have been an enthusiastic follower of this project and have probably read everything accessible via google. However, no one has raised your point. It could just misalign itself with the lowest cross-sectional profile into the wind. perhaps some sort of odd-shaped tail rudder aligned through the central axis would re-align it.
This plan has such great potential, due to wider range of adequate winds aloft, that it would be a shame if it failed only because this one detail.
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