New Geothermal Windmill

So this is a design for a geothermal windmill that I've been working on and am in the process of building/testing.   I thought I would open source this and share it with all of you.  I'll try to document things as this project develops.

THE IDEA:
The idea is for a home sided windmill system that would always have wind 24/7. Cold air moves to hot air so we want to capitalize on that differential as much as possible.  The greater the difference of temperature the more wind will be created and the faster a windmill/turbine will spin. The earth and sprinkler mist and evaporator cooling will cool the air as it piped through the ground in 3 stages.  I'm hoping it will cool the air down to around 0 C(32F). Then it will encounter Fresnel lens/fire heated rocks/sand bed(heat sink bank) that will super heat that air to around 260 C(500 F) and provide suction through thermal convection of the air. Turbines will be placed between ground and the heat bank as well as in the convection pipe above the heat bed.  Here's a diagram to help understand.   I would love to hear you input on this design, I haven't seen anything like this.  I have a couple engineers helping me on this project with the math and such, but I'm totally open for other building this system as well and testing it. What do you guys think?

Have you looked into building a trompe?

Here is a thread talking about trompe.  https://permies.com/t/40/16261/tech/Mollison-Trompe-alternative-energy

G Brent wrote:So this is a design for a geothermal windmill that I've been working on and am in the process of building/testing.   I thought I would open source this and share it with all of you.  I'll try to document things as this project develops.

THE IDEA:
The idea is for a home sided windmill system that would always have wind 24/7. Cold air moves to hot air so we want to capitalize on that differential as much as possible.  The greater the difference of temperature the more wind will be created and the faster a windmill/turbine will spin. The earth and sprinkler mist and evaporator cooling will cool the air as it piped through the ground in 3 stages.  I'm hoping it will cool the air down to around 0 C(32F). Then it will encounter Fresnel lens/fire heated rocks/sand bed(heat sink bank) that will super heat that air to around 260 C(500 F) and provide suction through thermal convection of the air. Turbines will be placed between ground and the heat bank as well as in the convection pipe above the heat bed.  Here's a diagram to help understand.   I would love to hear you input on this design, I haven't seen anything like this.  I have a couple engineers helping me on this project with the math and such, but I'm totally open for other building this system as well and testing it. What do you guys think?

It's a cool idea.  Some thoughts that may or may not be valid.  I'm not sure you need the fresnel lens at all.  If you do, maybe focusing it higher on your tube, on the tube itself would draw the air through faster?  

You said 24/7, but at night when it gets cooler outside and the sun goes down, won't the air flow stop, or you're planning to keep a fire going all the time?

A simplified version of this built into a dwelling could serve as a source of natural air conditioning.

Trace Oswald wrote:

It's a cool idea.  Some thoughts that may or may not be valid.  I'm not sure you need the Fresnel lens at all.  If you do, maybe focusing it higher on your tube, on the tube itself would draw the air through faster?  

You said 24/7, but at night when it gets cooler outside and the sun goes down, won't the air flow stop, or you're planning to keep a fire going all the time?

That's what the heat bank is for. The rocks and sand will provide radiant heat should be coming off that and the convection effect will still happen.  Given it will be a lesser degree then during the day.  I'm hoping that the Fresnel lens will heat it up even higher than expected.  I've seen them heat up stuff to 4000 F .   So if that happens than that will a bonus.

T Blankinship wrote:Have you looked into building a trompe?

Yeah, it's not really the same concept at all.  I'm look at bring down the temperature of air in a 3 stage system.  I don't care about the compressed air aspect at all.  I think trompes are super cool!  I think about doing a water ram at the bottom and with the french drain.  

Look at Wind towers from the Middle east and Africa, I have built one in Bendigo and it works well in creating a draft through the house.
Also, there is a town in Germany that is all experimental and they have a similar one to cool a courtyard.