More on wind turbines: Green ramjets/ wind jets

It seems flying helps my creative process, since most of my creativity has been going to my actual job.

In many places wind energy is generated during non-peak demand times. What can’t be sold at full price is sold at a discount or is sent to a dump load. (Giant resistive heaters.)

Long ago I suggested that the excess energy could be used to make renewable hydrogen, however moving hydrogen is difficult and it is not energy rich, so it isn’t really worth the money. However, with a ramjet at the end of the turbine blades, there is something to be done with the hydrogen. Traditional jet engines (they tried so called tipjets in helicopters with little success) could be used but there complexity and cost, combined with the inefficiencies of using such a large wind swept area makes them a poor choice. However, if you have a source of near or faster than the speed of sound air then the low complexity and high efficiency of a ramjet make it the perfect choice. (Ramjets have no moving parts so they have to be brought to operating velocity by other means.)

By making hydrogen when electric demand is low it can be stored, then used as fuel in the ramjet to turn the blades when the wind is not blowing or not blowing very hard. The generator could briefly draw power from the grid to start the feathered blades, then once up to speed the ramjet would ignite and drive the blades with the exhaust gases. Since the ramjet would run in a very fixed speed range and altitude it could be designed to be highly efficient, and run very lean. Ramjet/scramjet wind turbines would have to be in very isolated areas, because the exhaust gases would exceed the speed of sound. However the shockwave would be away from the blade itself, reducing the wear on the to rotating mass.

Without a source of a fuel that was cheaper to sell as electricity than it was to move, this idea is not practical. You might be thinking why not put the hydrogen through a fuel cell since it is more efficient? Well if you already have a wind turbine with ramjet tips, then the equipment is already there, and isn’t as service intensive as a fuel cell.