Storing the Wind

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You may as well try and
Store the Wind

At the University of Nottingham there is currently a unique research project headed by a man with a grand Irish name;



Prof Seamus Garvey. He, and his team, are working on an idea called “ICARES” (Integrated Compressed Air Renewable Energy Systems). The Prof. has been developing it since 2006.

? - ? - Wait a while and I’ll tell ya!!



I love the ballbarrow for its design perfection, so simple and has additionally the big advantage that there is little to go wrong.

Prof. Garvey’s idea, on the face of it, is simple enough; he wants to build to build humongous wind turbines mounted at sea. But instead of having generators and gearboxes, his turbines will directly compress and pump air into huge undersea inflatable bags anchored to the seabed.

The Prof. in his own words proposes to “store the wind” !!! Then allow the wind to blow, from the compressed bags, when it is actually needed. The stored compressed air is then used to generate electricity by releasing it through turbine generator systems.

By bypassing the electrical generating stage before attempting energy storage, the efficiency is immediately increased, with no gearboxes and generator losses. Thus avoiding one of the losses associated with hydro-storage. With pumped hydro-storage systems you have to add pump losses, seepage, evaporation, and leaks, plus a second generating loss when the systems is generating.


To be continued...

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