Patent ID: 7714457
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: F03D,F05B,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A wind energy harvesting system, comprising: plural fluid-foil means for contacting proximate flow fields of an air current when said air current exists and carries wind energy in the form of fluid-dynamic kinetic energy; control system means for controlling time-variable orientations of said fluid-foil means relative to said proximate flow fields of said air current when said air current exists and carries wind energy in the form of fluid-dynamic kinetic energy; support runner means for slidably engaging a frozen surface and for contributing to supporting said fluid-foil means substantially above said frozen surface; connecting means for connecting said plural fluid-foil means in a sequential arrangement, including connecting members that connect adjacently-located fluid-foil means in said sequential arrangement; position-keeping means for maintaining said wind energy harvesting system substantially within a desired geographic envelope; and energy harvesting means including said control system means, for converting a portion of said fluid-dynamic kinetic energy into net work on said fluid-foil means over the course of a cycle of substantially periodic motion of said fluid-foil means, by utilizing time-variable fluid-dynamic pressure distributions and resulting forces acting on said fluid-foil means at said time-variable orientations to contribute to driving said substantially periodic motion when said air current exists and carries wind energy in the form of fluid-dynamic kinetic energy; said energy harvesting means further including energy conversion means for converting at least some of said net work into energy in a desired form for at least one of transmission, storage, processing and use.