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Monumental challenges face mankind regarding the state of our energy and natural resource consumption. At the current rate, global water consumption will demand more than supply can handle and by the year 2050, a global water crisis is expected. Cloud Power is the Solution!
What is Cloud Power?
Cloud Power collects moisture from the clouds and channels it down to earth in the form of water and energy. We do this with a device called the Air HES, or air hydroelectric station. Air Hes is a weather balloon that is launched thousands of meters into the sky. The device then uses a large "collector" to capture cloud moisture as they pass through the device. This water is then sent to the ground through conduit attachments. A turbo generator is then used to generate power from the water pressure to yield energy.
Our Mission!
Our mission is to use our device to provide clean drinking water and energy to impoverished areas without a source of clean, unpolluted drinking water. Our goal is to expand this application world-wide.
Air HES Prototype
Our Planet Faces Many Issues Due to Extensive Use of Fossil Fuels
1. Climate Instability
Earth's ecosystems are in a constant balance in order to support life on earth. If this balance is broken, life cannot exist.
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The problem of climate imbalance is not just an issue of comfort. This is a problem facing the future of all life on Earth.
For example, In our solar system, our two closest neighbors, Venus and Mars, demonstrate this urgency. Small shifts in climate temperature can cause huge imbalances in ecosystems and affect earth's ability to sustain life. Despite the fact that different climate models give different predictions for impending periods of destruction, we need to focus on the predictions that give us just a few decades before the irreversible consequences.
2. Air Pollution - the main source of the climate problem
All that nature has garnered millions of years in the form of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), humanity will spend in just a couple of centuries since the industrial revolution. Americans use about 20 tons of CO2 per year. The number is steadily rising. "We have to go from steadily rising (CO2) to steadily falling," Bill Gates.
Energy Talk by Bill Gates
3. The Problem with Current Non-Renewable Resources
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(Image from thinkprogress.org)
The chart above illustrates that 77% of our energy dependence is on NON-renewable resources. Now let's take a look at why this number needs to change.
Coal
Coal power plants essentially work in the same way that Fission plants do. A turbine is spun by steam that is built up due to the burning of a fuel source (coal). Coal plants may not have the threat of meltdowns, but it is in no way a renewable source. Reserves are dwindling and wars are fought over scarce resources. The burning of coal also produces large amounts of CO2 and other harmful by-products.
Natural Gas
Using natural gas also poses a problem when trying to remedy the energy crisis. A huge problem when using this resource stems from the fact that it is so explosive. Natural gas is 80% to 95% methane. It is not only highly explosive but also stored under great pressure. The pipelines used to channel the fuel is also very costly and prone to leaking. This poses a significant threat to the environment.
Fission Nuclear Power
Fission power is what most people mean when they refer to Nuclear Power. Fission Power produces a large amount of power output but has significant drawbacks. Radioactive rods can pose a threat to the environment for thousands of years. There is also a threat of nuclear core meltdown or explosions due to the high pressure build-up of the reactors. Deforestation also comes into play when mining for uranium. Truckloads of the metal are needed in order to keep the plants running.
The Toll of Using Non-Renewable Resources
The result of analyzing existing technologies usually has pessimistic conclusion that until fossil fuels are finished (which is about a couple of hundred years), mankind will be forced to use it, along the way we try to minimize the problem of accumulation of CO2 and praying to avoid the problem of global climate change. What's next - God knows...
Weather patterns are getting more irregular and severe. Major disasters can occur as early as 2050-2100. If the climate catastrophe becomes evident, or if reserves of fuel run out, then immediate transition to renewable resources is forced. That would mean the collapse of human development, reducing its numbers due to hunger and lack of energy and other resources, etc.
The Science Behind the Invention!
How it works
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Air HES utilizes several technologies that have been carefully developed over hundreds of years. This allows for farming of a previously untouchable resource, the clouds, the very source of precipitation itself.
The Cloud Collector
The main component of AirHES is the cloud collector. The cloud collector is a mesh that hangs vertically in the air. Clouds pass through the mesh and any moisture is trapped in the fibers. The water then runs down due to a special coating on the mesh. A trough like reservoir is located at the bottom of the collector and funnels the water down to the attachments.
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Similar cloud collectors have been around since ancient times and were mainly used to collect fog from the tops of mountains. Through the years, water collection from these “fog collectors” have gotten more efficient as researchers began to recognize the benefit the technology could bring to the world. Earlier this year, MIT reported that they have created a fog collector mesh that is 5 times more efficient in capturing water than any other previous versions.
The Aerostat
The lifting mechanism of the AirHES is the aerostat or Blimp. Essentially a large weather balloon, the aerostat is typically used to track weather conditions and temperatures 60,000 to 120,000 feet in the stratosphere.
We only need a height of about 7,000 feet to reach the mid-level clouds in the troposphere.
An aerostat is the perfect candidate for the main lifting force of AirHES because not only can extreme heights be achieved, but also because of the lifting power.
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Isn’t the weight of the tether and water running through the conduit too much weight for a weather balloon?! Balloons provide more lift than most people would think.
The lifting force of a balloon is increased 8 fold for every 2 fold increase in diameter. This means that if you have a balloon 4 feet in diameter, the amount of lift it could generate would be close to about 2 pounds. Now, suppose you have a balloon 8 feet in diameter, the lift is now 16 lbs. We calculate that with a 60 foot balloon, this yields around 7,000 lbs of lift which is more than enough to carry the weight of the vertical tether and the weight of the water inside.
The Turbo Generator
We are confident that we can get pure, clean drinking water from our device. Our prototype has already collected around 4 liters of water per hour for each square meter of mesh at 4,000 feet. We aim to use the height of the aerostat to our advantage. This water pressure is tremendous and capable of powering a hydro generator.
Imagine the pressure that a standard water tower yields. The water pressure at a height of 7,000 feet is much greater and we intend to use it.
Quick Feasibility Examination
This section is a short outline of some external factors that support the need for a more efficient use of the water cycle. The full report of the feasibility study can be found in the following link.
Feasibility study
1. Potential Power of the Water Cycle
The Water Cycle is the most powerful process in Nature – about a quarter of all the Sun's energy, or about a half of Sun’s Energy, reaches the Earth. The sun is the primary driving factor in the of weather.
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Since AirHES collects moisture from clouds, the annual precipitation is about one meter of rainfall, we can turn that into power equal to about 800 TW. To put this in perspective this amount is:
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more than 60 times greater than all the current needs of humanity
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more than 400 times greater than all electrical power stations
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2. Why can’t traditional hydro power sources harness the same output as AirHES?
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By vertical: all precipitation loses most of its potential energy on the way to the ground as it falls
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By horizontal:
Most precipitation that reaches the ground ends up in oceans or low lying land, which is unavailable to be harnessed.
For example, a river powered hydro station is 200 times less effective than power from cloud precipitation.
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3. How to avoid this power loss?
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Collect water in place where it condenses, i. e. directly in clouds
AirHES is able to be used in any habitat containing clouds.
It was suggested by Nikola Tesla in 1915.
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4. AirHES is a collaboration of three already well-known devices:
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Hydro power already used today
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Barrage balloons, or kites
- Fog (or here, cloud) collectors
5. Patent AERO HPP
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SUBSTANCE: device comprises a lower reach 1, an upper reach 2, a water conduit 3, a turbogenerator 4 and surfaces 5. Surfaces 5 are made as capable of receiving atmospheric moisture from the air flow and delivering it to the upper reach. Besides, surface 5 are raised to the height above the dew point for these atmospheric conditions. To support the surfaces 5, balloons or airships 6 are used.
EFFECT: expansion of functional capabilities and increased specific capacity of HPP by using maximum possible difference of heights between upper and lower reaches from height of actual condensation of atmospheric moisture in a cloud to ground level.
6. What it gives?
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almost eternal and unlimited gratuitous electricity and clean water for drinking and irrigation, and anywhere in the world, where there are clouds
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minimum space on the ground (as under this HPP and under power lines), as well as the ability to use any surface (including the vast areas of deserts, seas, oceans, etc.)
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modular (you can collect any power plants from standard modules)
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mobility (for rapid redeployment, if necessary, or even for use in transport, for example, to supply ocean ships by electricity and drink water)
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Its cleanliness and ecologically efficiency
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Relatively small local hydro flows ( in comparing with conventional HPP)
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significantly lower capital costs per unit of capacity and operational costs by comparing with any other known types of renewable and non-renewable energy
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possibility of additional uses for network communication, video surveillance, high-rise advertising, lightning protection, climate protection (for example, against hurricanes and tornadoes in the U.S. by placement on the seaboard of Gulf of Mexico), regulation of climate (by cutting off rains in St. Petersburg by placement on the dam at the prevailing southwest wind rose), AD (for example, for Israel), shade in hot countries, and much more…
7. Economical prospective view (Some Math for you!)
Estimation for maximal output example calculations:
In a thundercloud, close to the equator, we have up to 5 g/m3 of LWC. Parameters set to only 1 g/m3, the altitude of 5 km, the usual wind speed here of 10 m/s, we get 500 W/m2. For comparing, a NPP unit of 500 MW is equal ~ 1 km2 of the mesh for Air Hydro Power. Not so much. And NPP unit is on the ground with the same space. Plus 100 km2 of emergency zone. And this land is lost forever. But we need only in a small area for the turbine, the rest is in the air 5 km in the sky.
So, if we use the economical approximation by extensive factor (i.e. on 1 m2 of active surface - $ 0.5 for a double layer of PP mesh), then for a big Air Hydro Power unit, we can estimate the following specific capital costs:
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by average data of passive fog collectors ~ 2 W/m2 -> ~ $ 250/kW
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by maximal data of active fog collectors ~ 50 W/m2 -> ~ $ 10/kW
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by physical calculation on equator ~ 500 W/m2 -> ~ $ 1/kW
In comparison,
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A gas turbine Power plant with ~ $ 500-700/kW for the cost about 5 cents per kWh,
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A conventional Terra power plant with ~ $ 1500/kW for ~ 2.5 cents per kWh,
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A Hydro Power plant with ~ $ 1000-3000/kW for ~ 0.5 cents per kWh,
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A Nuclear Power Plant with ~ $ 5000/kW for ~ 2.5 cents per kWh.
If you are interested in the
Feasibility study, please take a look.
8. Main advantages
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Huge potential that is much more than all human needs
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Almost world-wide use where there are clouds with water drops
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Can be Used as pumped storage and simultaneously as H2 storage
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Output is electricity, H2, and fresh water, Simultaneously
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The possibility to reduce energy costs by 1-2 orders of magnitude
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Absolute ecological security from any pollution and CO2
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Saving the climate and ecological balance of the planet
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Technological simplicity, it is not high-tech and can be reproduced easily
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At last, it is amazing beautiful! (Especially to scientists like me!)
Air HES in the Media
What we need the money for?
The detailed calculations in the "Feasibility study" show that this project can be fantastically beneficial. However to start up this absolutely new revolution in energy, an investors will be the main support. This is why we are launching our IndieGoGo campaign. In order to build a fully functional working prototype scaled up enough for constant water and energy output. This will encourage investors to take the project to phase two.
We had tested the first scientific prototype last summer (2013/07/30) in Russia through our own funding (~$3k). We suppose that we have gotten approximately 5 liter/m2 per hour (by analyzing the aerostat positions). The water collector proved that we had collected water but the rope holding AirHES broke and exact figures were not obtained.
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Now we are going to build another prototype that we could test as a real device for any possible estimates and conditions. You can see in the feasibility study down below that the target sum matches the estimation of the possible total cost of this minimal technical prototype. In other words, we need about $14,052 to make a scaled-up version of AirHES.
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We are sure on 99% that we can demonstrate a workable prototype for attracting investors and further developing this project as business.
And most importantly:
This may be the most important project in the History that will forever solve the basic problems of mankind (except stupidity, of course) and will provide participants immortality in the memory of posterity in row of the most famous names.
Ultimately, all that a man does - is an attempt to earn a piece of immortality in the form of memory at least through their descendants, at least temporarily.
But here it is, the eternal memory for all generations of all humanity...
So, you will help us go down in history, as the generation that saved the planet.
Stretch Goal
If we could get ~ $100k from this campaign we could start up this project even without an external investor. Then we will try to start by producing simple devices for fresh water supply (like a portable kite SKY-FOUNTAIN, etc.) and step-by-step to develop our devices for getting energy, hydrogen, and water... We are sure the idea will succeed, and with your help... We can do it!
And, of course, anybody who want can start the same project independently... We will be only glad if anybody will get the result faster and better us - it is a global problem and we will not struggle for priority or market...
Also we need everyone to help us spread the word about this campaign!
Share the IndieGoGo page on Facebook & Twitter: http://igg.me/at/cloudspower
If you know any TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, blogs or potential sponsors please email us! mailto:andrew@airhes.com
#cloudspower
PS: We ask in advance to excuse us for absence of "things" perks because delivering from Russia is very risky and expensive. If we will achieve success, we will remember that this is our debt in future...
NB! Russian contributors can get problems with payment by Paypal because by Russian laws you should use ONLY RUR between Russian accounts - please, in this case just use this link to our site.
