Flying Windmills May Point The way to Energy Future

There is an interesting attempt going on to try and make the idea of wind power actually generate enough energy to be useful. A company in california called Sky Wind Power has already designed a device that it calls A Flying Electric Generator (FEG). Working in conjunction with an engineer named Bryan Roberts from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia the idea simply put is a flying windmill. What it would do is harness the power of the high winds that blow in the upper altitudes of the atmosphere. Up in the sky between about 15,000 feet and 45,000 feet the winds that circulate around the world can blow at speeds of up to 200 M.P.H. The idea is that they would build a plane type structure that would float up in the sky not unlike a glider and be maintained in flight by the winds while at the same time it would have rotating propellers that would spin like windmills and generate energy. They would have a tether connecting them to a power station (The power grid) on the ground that would convert the energy produced to electricity. Basically they would be like kites in the sky collecting energy. It has been estimated that if a mere 1% of the power of these winds that exist in the upper atmosphere could be harnessed that it would be able to provide enough energy to meet the worlds current entire demand levels without doing any damage or polluting of the enviornment. All the research at the company has been done and the only thing they need now is a $4 million dollar investment in order to build the first prototype.