New Energy Source
A plan to make wind-power literally leap out from the box, and sail high into the sky, is the striking vision that this team has put forward. Taking advantage of the stronger and more consistent winds higher in the air, they are seeking to hoist a wind-turbine up to 2,000 feet aloft. Not only could this power source be deployed from a single shipping container in about a day in an emergency – it could offer a new angle to rolling out wind-power, so often strait-jacketed by high costs or local objections of late.
The problem with harnessing wind-power close to the ground is that the wind flow gets disrupted by buildings, trees and other landscape features. This has led to wind turbines being erected onto ever-higher towers, making the most of the cleaner, faster air up there. However, bigger means more cost, and more environmental impact.
But what if the buoyancy of a helium-filled shroud was used to concentrate stronger winds into the blades of a horizontally-aligned turbine? Power would be tapped via a conductive tether that holds the system at the optimal altitude. This unique design is adapted from reliable aerostats – essentially tethered blimps – that have decades of experience lifting multi-ton monitoring equipment such as radars into the air for long periods of time.
This Airborne Wind Turbine concept could be particularly useful in remote locations, where getting traditional energy infrastructure up-and-running can be costly and slow. With up to eight times as much power available at those higher altitudes, the economic case for wind farms in the sky could see them soaring more widely soon.
About the finalists:
Ben Glass is CEO of Altaeros Energies and is the inventor of the Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine. His past experience includes successfully leading the design, fabrication and testing of several energy and electro-mechanical research projects, including small scale wind turbines and ultra-aerodynamic solar powered vehicles. He is an expert in fluid dynamic design and has considerable structural analysis and design skills. Ben received his S.M. & S.B. in Aeronautics & Astronautics in 2010 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Adam Rein is a Co-Founder and CFO of Altaeros Energies. Previously Adam worked as a strategy consultant for Bain & Company and helped lead business development and operations for a biofuels organization in Africa and an energy efficiency startup in Boston. Adam received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2010.