mega environmentalism, balloons, environment, joseph cory, solar

Power Your Home with Helium Balloons

Need to get some quick-and-pretty solar energy to your house, but don't want to mount a bunch of heavy solar panels on your roof? Now you can start powering up with these gorgeous, lightweight solar balloons. As long as you've got a helium tank handy, says inventor Joseph Cory, just one or two of these balloons made with photovoltaic solar cells could power your whole house.

Cory developed the balloons with aerospace engineer Pini Gurfil. The two say that these balloons would be good for off-the-grid applications, like setting up a camp after a disaster or pumping energy into a house far from electricity generators. Because the balloons are so lightweight and energy-efficient, they can be quickly deployed and moved around.

According to Inhabitat:

Cory and Gurfil have constructed several prototypes and have conducted research to show that a 10 ft balloon could provide around a kilowatt of energy (equivalent to 25 square meters of solar panels). Their target cost is $4,000 per balloon, compared to the $10,000 it would cost for a solar field producing the same amount of energy. The balloons will last about a year without needing maintenance.

Not sure how they would fare in a storm, but perhaps you'd just have some capacitors charged up so you could take the balloons down during times of heavy rain.

Solar Balloons [Inhabitat]

4:09 PM on Thu Apr 10 2008
By Annalee Newitz
6,924 views
16 comments

Comments

Mathmos at 04:17 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

There's a Helium shortage

[www.wired.com]
Annalee Newitz at 04:29 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 344

@Mathmos: Didn't you even read that article? Nothing to worry about -- we can start mining helium from the moon! You know, using that moon base we've got.
aspiringexpatriate at 04:47 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 167

So Amarillo *is* good for something? Who knew?
victheremin at 04:47 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

How about using some of the energy produced to keep the balloons aloft instead of using helium? Although I guess heating the air inside might be environmentally detrimental. Great idea though.
Freddie Freelance at 05:01 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

You could leave out the Helium completely if you use a large enough Geodesic Sphere:

[www.theweebsite.com]
codydog at 05:26 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

Some hippie invented the solar balloon years ago. Basically a black plastic balloon inside a clear plastic balloon.

Goes up fine, won't come down until dark, not the best time to land a balloon..

Back to the old drawing board.
wingbatwu at 06:05 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

Instead of helium, we could fill the balloons with hydrogen we make by electrolysis with the electricity produced by the solar balloons.

oh wait...
amorphous at 06:18 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

Can you make puppies out of these?
Mathmos at 06:34 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

@Annalee Newitz: I mentioned mining Helium 3 in the context of the Phobos real estate story. Anyway, guess I'm confused. I thought it was Nazis who have a moonbase, on the dark side.
bdavis007 at 08:14 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

I'd love to see a CGI-scape of the Los Angeles basin with 30% of the structures using this - I'm thinking seizure inducing...
rebrad at 08:40 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

My neighborhood association has a covenant against such items as unsightly and lowering home sale values.
Gopherit at 11:18 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 202

Those would work great in Arizona...until our monsoon season...oh, I'm sorry: Summer Rainy Season. They'd be a lot of fun then, but for all the wrong reasons.
Dabby at 05:07 AM on 04/11/08
Reply by Email
*

Yeah, sure, they're gorgeous now - but just wait 'til the birds start crapping on them.
92BuickLeSabre at 07:04 AM on 04/11/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 558

slingshot terrorism
corpore-metal at 12:42 PM on 04/11/08
Reply by Email
*

Actually this reminds me of something I read here:

[www.worldchanging.com]

Imagine scaling these things up in size and anchoring them by enormous tethers above cloud level. Make them into gigantic rotors to spin in wind currents. The spinning generates electricity.
RocktheDebit at 11:14 AM on 04/12/08
Reply by Email
*

@rebrad: Lowering home values? How is free energy detrimental to a home's value? Maybe it doesn't fit the white-picket-fence image, and I suppose it wouldn't work in a Historic District, but I don't see how it's any tackier than a satellite dish or massive aerial antenna.