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Windmills are a thing of the past! In the future, renewable energy could come from wind harvesting drones. These devices are portable, and would require a lot less material to make. And where do we find this wind? Why not use a Solar Wind Energy Tower and create it ourselves!

What renewable energy source do YOU think is the most promising? Let us know in the comments below!

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[TRANSCRIPT]:
The drones are coming! And they're making renewable energy?

You know, the trouble with wind power is that it needs to be windy. And if it's not you really only have two solutions - go out and find the wind, or create it. So, how does one create wind? Well that's why I've cooked up this huge vat of chili.

Just kidding.

Actually, there's a company called Solar Wind Energy Tower that has a solution. They propose building towers out in the desert that will suck up hot, dry air. Now that hot, dry air goes up the tower until it hits the top, where they add in water vapor, making that air heavy. And then the air rushes down at speeds upwards of fifty miles-per-hour, until it hits turbines which then will generate electricity.

The best place to harvest wind energy tends to be the coastline. And if you're like me, you like to get your shade from a nice beach umbrella, not a noisy 300-ft tall windmill. Luckily, Makani Power, an engineering firm run by a California wind surfer has come up with a pretty cool idea. They have a wind harvesting drone attached to a rope, which sounds pretty radical if you ask me.

The most effective part of a turbine blade is the tip. So the Makani Airborne Wind Turbine travels in a vertical circle in the same path as the tip of a conventional turbine blade. Wing mounted rotors catch the rushing wind, which is converted into electricity by small generators and sent back to the ground via the tether, which is a conductive cable.

So why is this any better than a traditional windmill? The same reason it's better to live in an RV than an Egyptian pyramid. It takes a lot less material to make, and it's portable.

Mental note. Really need to work on my analogies.

It's possible that these Makani turbines could be flown out over the ocean where winds are particularly strong. Now the electricity they generate could just be sent down to buoys floating in the ocean and collected later to be sent back to land.

Now of course this doesn't mean we should just abandon our traditional wind harvesting strategies, we just have to make them smarter. Which is what companies like GE are doing. You see, they're adding sensors to wind turbines to collect oodles of data, and turn it into dynamic action on the turbines themselves, so if the wind conditions change, the turbine can automatically adjust the tilt of the blades and maximize efficiency.

Clearly, none of these solutions are perfect, which is why we're going to have to continue to innovate in this space. After all, when it comes to renewable energy, the winds of change are always blowing.

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