This just in “let’s create electricity using the wind and NO Moving Parts”. Yes indeed. Though this has to be some kind of “static electricity thingy” if they can liberate enough electrons then why not. They can not say because it is proprietary but I must say:
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This is pretty amazing and it is a sign of what is to come. As I said before when an old source of energy runs out or loses favor there is a flurry of innovation and creation. This happened right as whale oil was running out and the car was being developed. This could be really revolutionary though as reported here:
and here:
http://blog.mlive.com/businessinnovation/2009/02/ann_arbor_tech_companies_chall.html
Wind energy device without moving parts
‘Model T of wind energy’? Accio Energy lands $250,000 DARPA contract
Ann Arbor-based Accio Energy recently won a $250,000 federal contract to continue developing its potentially revolutionary wind energy device, which would generate electricity without the moving parts associated with a traditional wind turbine.
Accio General Manager Jeff Basch said the firm received the contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue the design and creation of its prototype device.
“It’s a real vote of confidence in us,” Basch said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIWTRwM9UKc
Basch said Accio (pronounced AK-SEE-OH) is considering expanding its laboratory facilities 5-fold to support the startup company’s growth. He declined to discuss the company’s personnel count but said the firm is hiring engineers.
The contract comes as Accio executives have been reluctant to discuss the details behind their potentially explosive technology until the “aerovoltaic” device is ready for a wider spotlight. The technology has yet to be proved on a wide scale.
But Accio President Dawn White, who also founded Ann Arbor-based defense technology firm Solidica, recently revealed some details about the technology in a speech to an entrepreneurial group in DetroiDot Dot Dot
Accio executives have said they believe their device could generate electricity at twice the rate per square meter of solar panels.
Among the details White revealed:
-The device, which wouldn’t using any moving parts or generate noise, uses the wind to separate electrical charges on thin engineered tubes and create electricity.
“Opposing electrical charges, just like magnets, are attracted to each other,” White said. “It takes energy to pull those charges apart. That energy is provided by the wind and we convert it directly to electricity in the same way that a solar panel takes sunlight. And we convert that directly into a current. It’s very much like what happens inside a thunderstorm actually.”
Dot Dot Dot
Accio is still reluctant to discuss the history behind its technology. Accio’s scientific developers have said they’re enhancing intellectual property that expired years ago, which would lead to competitive concerns that the technology could be duplicated elsewhere.
The basics of the technology, however, have impressed experts. The National Science Foundation in February distributed a $97,000 grant to Accio in an award generally seen as a validation of the device’s technological concepts.
The company also received $80,000 in early-stage venture capital financing from the student-run Frankel Commercialization Fund at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
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I would be willing to bet that it is something like this:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4146800.html
The invention relates to apparatus for and method of generating electricity from wind energy.
The apparatus comprises means such as a foraminous condenser plate and a condenser surface, e.g., the earth, for producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, means such as needle points and balls or fine wires and cylinders capable of creating a corona discharge or equivalent ion or electron generator for producing charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, which results in an increase in the electric potential across the field, means such as a second foraminous plate or the earth for collecting the charged particles and means such as a high voltage power regulator and converter for making the increased potential available for utilization.
The method comprises operations corresponding to the means, viz., producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, generating charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, resulting in an increase of the charged particles and making the increased potential available for utilization.
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This was proposed in 1979…wonder what happened to it? What if they were made out of nanotubes?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube
Electrical
Because of the symmetry and unique electronic structure of graphene, the structure of a nanotube strongly affects its electrical properties. For a given (n,m) nanotube, if n = m, the nanotube is metallic; if n ? m is a multiple of 3, then the nanotube is semiconducting with a very small band gap, otherwise the nanotube is a moderate semiconductor. Thus all armchair (n = m) nanotubes are metallic, and nanotubes (5,0), (6,4), (9,1), etc. are semiconducting. In theory, metallic nanotubes can carry an electrical current density of 4 × 109 A/cm2 which is more than 1,000 times greater than metals such as copper .
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes with interconnected inner shells show superconductivity with a relatively high transition temperature Tc = 12 K. In contrast, the Tc value is an order of magnitude lower for ropes of single-walled carbon nanotubes or for MWNTs with usual, non-interconnected shells
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OHHHHH I like that…
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