Wind Dam AWES Architecture

There are so many potential AWES architectures that we still have not finished identifying them all.

The Wind Dam concept has not been well explored. The intent is to "supercharge" a HAWT by embedding it in a membrane curtain. This allows both a smaller turbine turning faster and a potential boost in unit-power to capital-cost. Is supercharging membrane manageable enough and cheaper than the alternative of ever larger "bare" turbines?

KiteLab Ilwaco has a ~10 W wind dam AWES kite prototype in preparation* and predicts it will work rather well. Self-lift and furling are features of the experimental design.

Could the ultimate AWES architecture be vast numbers of small "hi-voltage" turbines embedded as arrays in large membrane wings?

* Under the KiteLab Group "test everything" ethos, this is no premature endorsement, just endless active testing.

CoolIP*                      ~Dave Santos                 12Jan2012                   AWES5360

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