Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers
- added May 16, 2008
- 4 responses
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- neokn
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- Tech (3185)
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"Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen's undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored "power boxes" that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets. Obviously this is just a concept, but it's a clever one -- let's hope someone with the cash to make it happens finds out about it."
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Well, now we're getting somewhere with solar energy! Great concept!
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Well, now we're getting somewhere with solar energy! Great concept!
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Great idea, but lets not forget The Hindenburg incident. That the last thing that the disaster-ridden area that this thing is deployed to would need. -
Then again, the Hindenburg incident happened in the late thirties. I am not an engineer but I would assume blimp technology has improved over the last 70 years, so an incident like the Hindenburg fire is probably very unlikely.
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Your right, it probably is unlikely, but that was just flying around for the sake of flying. This will be conducting large amounts of electrical power.
I'm not saying the builders will be incompetent or that it is a bad idea but the guy who designed it was an undergrad not a professional with experience. My hope is that he continues to refine his idea. -
In a couple of years, this student will most likely be a graduate and start working with professionals. They will most likely adopt the idea and together they might actually start building this.
In fact, I think this sort of solar energy collection could be used in many places, not only disaster areas and poor countries.
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