China tests world’s largest megawatt-level flying 'windmill' airship
interestingengineering.com
China’s S1500 airborne wind turbine completes maiden flight, becoming the world’s largest floating wind-power generator.

"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 "

  • inktvip@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    4·
    8 hours ago

    Kinetic energy is exactly what’s harvested, which is why modern wind turbines are not far off the theoretical limit of the amount of energy that can be extracted. (Betz’s law)

    By taking energy from wind, you slow it down. Slow it down too much, and it can’t get out of the way in time for new air.

    • tate@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      1·
      30 minutes ago

      I could have stated it better. What I meant was that the fraction of kinetic energy that is taken from the wind is so small that the total kinetic energy in the wind is probably not the important factor that changes with wind speed. The dynamics of how the lift depends on wind speed is probably much more important.