"I'm not convinced that 500' would be the highest it could be built. There are skyscrapers being built that are upwards of 1500-2000 ft tall, and they are heavy, built with concrete for extreme compression loads. Guy wires are made of steel, working in tension they are extraordinarily strong. I think a 2000 ft tall funnel inlet would be feasible. Whether anyone would want to build one is another story. It would be pure laziness if someone didn't try it at least once, it's so simple."
These TV towers can fail from winds loads- that's without attaching some vast sail to it. Wind loads to bridges and skyscrapers are significant factors- if you increased there sail area by say a factor of 4, high winds would probably cause them to fail.
I think a significant problem in regards to wind turbine is their inability to produce energy in conditions of low wind speed. Therefore if you make funnels which are cheap enough and not a potential threat to the wind turbines themselves, and can increase wind speed be 50-100% then this would be valuable idea.
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re: All good points
The whole thread (42 posts)
- Giant Wind Turbines
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- Thought on caves.
- re: Is there anything wrong with this design.
- Stormblade
- The problem with wind turbines so far.
- people are already trying to build simmilar devices, called 'Solar Updraft Towers' I believe, in Australia (n/t)
- Make the tunnel parabolic in shape.
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- re: Giant Wind Turbines
- Cost, time-to-build.