Katrina: A Storm Brimming With Free Power

RainmanTime

Super Moderator
While Katrina did significant damage to one large part of the US energy processing capability (the oil rigs and refineries in that area of the Gulf), it is interesting to think about the amount of raw power that was inherent in Katrina, and how much Energy she delivered to that area.

So many people are hemming and hawing and worrying about how it will devastate the economy, and there are going to be "oil wars". But at the same time there are futurists, scientists, and innovators who are looking at the lesson of Katrina and seeing future opportunities for new sources of energy and how to tap into them.

One cannot argue the fact that hurricanes (and tornados for that matter) are actually free sources of kinetic energy. They are natural energy events, packed with Power (just what we need to run our energy consuming devices) and just waiting to be tapped by the innovation of mankind. And I can predict with certainty that such power systems will be created as we seek energy from other sources.

Imagine a fleet of large wind turbines mounted to floatable rigs that can be moved in a matter of days to stand in front of a hurricane that is approaching an area of coastline. Not only will these wind turbines generate energy from the hurricane's natural power source, but they could also be designed to dissipate the hurricane's energy before it ever reaches the shoreline, thus saving the city.

There is already a patent for such a system. It only takes the innovation and engineering excellence, along with financial backers, to make it happen.

RMT
 
Update to thread for Rita

Just thought I'd post the calcs I happened to do after reading MEM's reports of current winds and predicted maximum winds for Hurricane Rita.

Let's say you (MEM) had a wind turbine on your property with a propellor diameter of 5 feet down there where you are just about at sea level. At a steady 50 mph wind you could be generating (ideally) about 12.5 KWatts of power! What is even more amazing, is if this turbine was designed to operate in greater than 100 mph winds, at that windspeed it could generate an ideal power of about 100 KWatts! If you applied "economies of scale" to this with 1000 of these wind turbines, those numbers go up to 12.5 and 100 MWatts, respectively. Sure the power generation doesn't last for a long period of time, like a powerplant, or solar energy. By comparison, the generators at Hoover Dam can generate 225 MWatts continuously, and it serves a helluva lots of loads in the US Southwest.

Thoughts?
RMT
 
New American Powerplants

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that we're in a period of heightened hurricane activity that could last another decade or two.
All the more reason to build a bank of energy generators that can collect "free energy" from nature's hurricanes.

Above quote is from:

CNN Article on New Era of Hurriances

RMT
 
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