Company channeling wind power with turbines, blimps
Channeling the wind for power is not a new concept, but a local company is improving the clean, green technology in an effort to generate twice as much.
Born out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Altaeros Energies has combined two time-tested technologies: the typical wind turbine you're used to seeing on the side of the road and the blimp.
Altaeros Energies promise that delivering affordable energy will soon be possible for the furthest points of the Earth.
It may sound like science fiction, but it's reality that is being testing now on a commercial scale by Altaeros. They’re harnessing wind where it's stronger and more constant with a turbine housed in a helium balloon shell.
"(It’s) the kind of re-purposing that technology we're used to seeing in the blimps flying above Fenway or Gillette Stadium, but we're using it to lift a wind turbine up to 2,000 feet above ground," said CEO Ben Glass.
Glass said the concept came after a study found the wind high above the ground could power the world a hundred times over. His Bouyant Airborne Turbine, or BAT, is tethered and one of those lines has electric cables that sends the power down to the ground. That power could be delivered to remote areas, disaster zones and one day, to you.
"Even for us here in Boston just to reduce our energy bill -- that's the goal," said Glass.
Right now Altaeros is in the middle of a full scale 18 month long project in Alaska to demonstrate what the BAT can do, from there, the sky's the limit.