The silliness of the "Discovery Project Earth" series

I watched "Infinite Winds" on Planet Green. This is one of a series of programs in the "Project Earth" series purporting to use technology to save the Earth. Some of them are related to energy generation, others to geoengineering. They have a team, consisting of an entrepreneur, an engineer, and a scientist to assist people with ideas. This episode features the idea of helium filled airships equipped with turbine blades and generators to capture winds above the level of interference from trees and buildings and transmit it to the ground.



The link above will take you to the so-called "lab book" for the episode. It's divided into three preliminary tests and a "Final Test." The first preliminary test is apparently meant to determine the winds at altitude. In order to determine this, Dr. Basil Singer, a "quantum physicist," uses a powered parachute and a gps system to check winds at various altitudes (though, as a pilot, I must say that I was not clear on how their system measured airspeed, a necessity when using gps ground speed to determine wind speed and direction). Unless a series of tests over a period of time is taken, this is worthless. There's ample data and well-established theory available regarding the general variation of wind with increasing elevation. Such a one-time flight is completely useless with respect to the gathering of useful data.



The next preliminary test was of the cable to connect the airship to the ground and conduct electrical energy. Dr. Jennifer L. Languell, "the Engineer," concocted a scheme to use a crane and a series of cars, lifting them with the cable. They needed to lift five cars and keep the headlights on. Now, as it happens, I'm a partner in a firm that has (get ready) test equipment for exactly this sort of thing. We can perform tensile testing ranging to 600,000 pounds force. I estimate that we could have tested five samples (when gathering data, more than one sample is nice) and given actual numerical results for the maximum tensile load, complete with load vs. displacement data while continuously monitoring electrical continuity for, oh, say... $2,500.



Wind data gathered during Dr. Singer's flight were used in a wind tunnel to model the performance of the proposed airship and turbine. Modifications were made to the prototype model to eliminate uncontrollable spinning. No detail was given with respect to how scaling laws were implemented during this testing so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the appropriate dimensionless variables were utilized.



Finally, the team went to the field (where, exactly, is a subject of dispute) with a 21 meter prototype. The first effort was a failure, mainly because the generators (mounted at each end) deformed the airship to such an extent that it failed to rotate. Two weeks later, the team reconvened, having changed the configuration of the turbine blades and added internal bracing. The airship turbine was able to finally deliver about 200 watts and was deemed a success, with hugs all around.



Now, the prototype flown is on the order of .059 times the "flat plate area" of the proposed product, so we can expect that airship to intercept about 17 times the wind of the prototype. Let's assume that the wind is, on average, 3 times as fast at the proposed height at which the airship will be flown. This yields 3^3 or 27 times the available power. Let's also generously assume they are able to triple the efficiency of the system. Then we can expect 200*17*27*3=276,000 watts or about 280 kilowatts. We read here that a megawatt is anticipated (though the show itself states that it will be 1.5 megawatts).



It should be noted that the forces on the tether will scale with the wind-facing area of the airship and the square of wind speed. The airship, in turn, must lift this cable, though the helium volume and hence the buoyant lift scales with the cube of length. And, of course, the tether itself will be subject to wind loads. I haven't run any numbers because I have insufficient data but this may be problematic. Be that as it may, Fred Ferguson, the Canadian airship engineer responsible for the concept, envisions nine million full-sized airships providing for the the majority of the Earth's electrical requirments.



To Discovery Network's credit, they include a page listing some objections to the idea that such turbine airships will replace fossil fuels. However, the show itself reminded me very much of a high school science fair project, but with more money. It's a shame that the public is given the impression that this actually constitutes science. The problems facing us with respect to energy sources and climate change are too serious for this sort of cavalier approach. I won't waste my readers' time with the other episodes in the "Project Earth" series, suffice it to say that they are no better. My advice? Stick with Bill Nye the Science Guy.