Australia: NIMBY solution--flying power plants

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CBC

Thu Mar 29, 7:13 am

Flying Power Plants

An Australian inventor says he has the answer to people who don't want new electric power plants in the back yard -- build 'em in the sky. The BBC reports that University of Western Sydney Professor Brian Roberts has constructed wind generators that can be launched into the sky and turn the fast-moving air currents in the jet stream into electricity. The devices look like something the Wright brothers could have built -- a fragile-looking cross between a glider and a helicopter. Roberts says dozens of the devices could be launched into the jet stream, where the wind would spin the rotors, creating power that would be sent back to earth through cables.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 29, 2001


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