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Many years ago David Johnson, P.E., helped a local Denver company develop an electronic control circuits for a small wind generator which they were
perfecting. They were fortunate to be near the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) test site near Boulder, Colorado. They were
able to do much of the testing using NWTC's automated data acquisition system. |
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Wind Basics -- Wind Energy Physics -- Wind Power Equation -- Wind Sail Generator -- Sail Boat Energy Generator
Sail Train Energy Generator -- Sail Truck Energy Generator -- Miscellaneous
Information -- Useful Links |
| Proposed Sail Train Energy Generator |
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OK, maybe you don’t like the problems associated with my sailboat idea.
How about a sailtrain? If a wind sail could be used to generate electricity on a boat, perhaps it could also work for a special railroad train. Perhaps a special track would be laid to take advantage of some prevailing winds. The train generator, along with some smaller pilot trains, would
deploy a very large sail. The sail would capture the wind and pull the train down the tracks. Special
wheels on the train would lock onto the rails, preventing the train from being lifted off the ground. Generators on the train would convert the
motion into electricity. The electricity would be fed to a power grid, using power cables positioned at the side of the train tracks, thus
eliminating the need for any energy to be stored. |
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Maybe the track system would be 50 miles long, constructed to form a long narrow oval shape. Two trains might work together. One might be generating electricity while the other was running quickly
back to the starting line. When each train reached the end of the track, it would fold up its sail and quickly loop back to the beginning of
the large oval track at high speed, taking perhaps less than an hour. This two-train method would keep the energy flowing as long as the wind was
blowing |
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With sufficient separation, multiple trains could also run on the same set of tracks, further
increasing the energy collection. With a 5-mile separation, 10 trains could be running on the same 50 mile long set of tracks.
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| Assuming a 30% conversion efficiency and a wind speed of 35MPH, each train could generate 70 million watts
of electricity. Under such wind conditions, a 10-train system would be able to produce enough power for city of 350,000 homes. |
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If the average daily power was only 25 megawatts per train, a 10-train system could produce 2.2 million
megawatt hours of energy per year. At a price of $100 per megawatt hour, such a train could make 220 million dollars per year.
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Sure, there might be a problem with birds. Rain could make
the sail too heavy to be deployed. During severe weather, the sail would have to be folded up quickly to avoid being torn apart. Still, I like the idea of producing clean electricity without any pollution, without any ash to dispose of and without needing any water or other resources. |
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