this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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"High-altitude winds between 1,640 and 3,281 feet (500 and 10,000 meters) above the ground are stronger and steadier than surface winds. These winds are abundant, widely available, and carbon-free.

"The physics of wind power makes this resource extremely valuable. “When wind speed doubles, the energy it carries increases eightfold, triple the speed, and you have 27 times the energy,” explained Gong Zeqi "

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[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Saw this in Big Hero Six. It's a crazy concept. Hopefully it works.

[–] SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

It looks like a boss bloon from BTD6 lol

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago

This is totally breaking loose and heading toward the nearest city in the final act.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That looks like a giant...

[–] witty_username@feddit.nl 4 points 1 week ago

Austin Powers sketch

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

With a traditional wind turbine, if the wind speeds get too high, the turbine locks the rotation and feathers the blades. For the airship however, people will have to manually take it down and later erect it again. Hopefully they get to it in time, otherwise it's going to violently take itself down and/or fly off. Either way, that is a bunch of extra cost incurred on a regular basis.

Strikes me as an impractical solution.

[–] Nighed@feddit.uk 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A wind turbine automatically feathers. Why can't the airship automatically raise and lower itself?

With modern forecasting, getting it's height right shouldn't be too hard?

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Very interesting development. Especially that it can be deployed in disaster zones to provide energy - if there is a strong foundation to anchor it, probably.

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[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Very cool, and definitely worth switching too where it makes sense.

But there is no mention of cost, so it probably won't be cost competitive with regular wind for a while, which sucks.

But the silver lining is that this is among the first of this type of power generation, and it will only get better and more efficient as the tech is built upon.

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[–] Jikiya@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Cities are going to start looking like San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6) soon. Seems like an excellent idea though. If it really gets pursued, I wonder how it will interact with air travel, since I would imagine you would need no fly zones around these, at least at a certain height.

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Shira, get me my god damned tea!

Wow. I hope this tech works out practically.

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