The US is salivating at the chance to use their F-22 fleet against the hordes of Chinese balloons
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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This seems like it would be way cheaper and faster to install than standard windmills. I also never thought about the advantage these have in being able to get far, far higher altitude than a traditional windmill.
Super cool!
be way cheaper and faster to install
I'm curious about longevity and maintenance over time though. Still very cool, no arguments there
Zeppelins about to make a big comeback.
Jesucristo Hitler Paracelso Zeppelin Montoya González has never been happier (real dude in Ecuador)
Xi’s buying a stairway to heaven
I can totally see this being a thing. While I'm not an engineer, the benefits are obvious. Mobility, it looks pretty cheap, and I'm also thinking that due to the fact it's a baloon and it's held down by cables, it could probably receive variable power generation, where presumably if you lower the balloon, less power gets generated and if you raise it more power gets generated, due to there being more wind at higher altitudes.
The Chines are using balloons like never before. My team and I have issued the highest level of alert readiness. Why if that thing so much as, with the trade winds, are drifting into the america, I... aw, forget it. The point is, balloons.
Windpunk China
Developers say airborne power generation system ideal for disaster relief and isolated locations, such as islands and oilfields
Even negative EROI ain't gonna stop fossil fuel extraction. Get ready for "green oil".
That is cool as hell.
Getting hanged from one of these for saying solarpunk is racist (idk I can't find the original tweet from the Cruelty Squad guy)
I saw a concept kinda like this a looong time back, like 10-15 years ago, but it seems not to have come to fruition. Hopefully this one works out.
there's a variety of issues with tethered wind power but they're surmountable for limited specific use-cases. disaster relief is a little weird because a few of the failure conditions for these are things you really don't want when there's already a disaster happening
I would imagine the idea would be to bring one over after a disaster happens and the clean up phase begins. For example, if you had a flood or something, I can see floating one of these things over to provide power during clean up, and rescue.