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back to article Winning new UK pylon design may never be used

A Danish company has won a competition to design a new electricity pylon for the UK. The Department of Energy and Climate Change announced the winner, Bystrup, today. The winner will trouser £5,000 in prize money for its 'T-Pylon' design, but there's no commitment that it will be scarring the countryside any time soon. …

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    1. Grease Monkey Silver badge
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      As for the spiral turbines, that would put unacceptable loads on the pylons. They are designed to take the loads they take with the forces of the wind. Add more wind resistance and they might buckle in high winds.

      And yes the structure itself is possibly strong enough, but it would require a very big foundation. Something the existing wide based design does not need. Take a look at the foundations wind turbines are built on to get the idea. Notice I said possibly strong enough, theres a hell of a lot of testing goes into each pylon design and I don't suppose these have undergone that testing yet. It would be ironic if, having won the competition, they were to fail the tests.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But not as nice as this proposal

    For the Icelandic power distribution company Landsnet:

    http://www.choishine.com/port_projects/landsnet/landsnet.html

    We should definitely have these giant stalking things because:

    a: they're awesome, but mostly;

    b: they'd give Andrew a seizure.

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    1. John 62
      Reply Icon

      pretty cool, but repairs?

      Those are indeed rather cool. But I'd hate to have to repair them. They would probably end up with variety extending to the same person/pose used for each branch of the grid rather than per pylon.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nuke is the way to go.

    why not just build a load of thorium based nuclear reactors , and screw wind farms , wave machines, stupid PV panels on peoples houses, Eastern Europeans and their over priced gas, and the Middle East and their overpriced oil.

    We could even have "green retard " power stations where we fry all the idiots who think Wind and Wave are viable sources of power.

    Plus with Nuke-le-are power we call all run around looking like the Ready Brek kids from the late '70s .

    Even Arthur Scargill and his coal would be better than the current situation.

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  4. Isn't it obvious?

    We mostly use lattice towers here (Ontario)...

    ...because they cost less. City-dwellers prefer steel column towers (like the winning design) because they're prettier; farmers prefer them because they occupy less of a field. They tend to get built only as a concession, because of the higher cost.

    Typically, even then, angle towers (where the line bends) are still lattice towers, because it's much easier to build one that can support a lateral load without guying it.

    The lattice towers certainly are durable; back when I was in university (late 80's) I found an in-service 115kV transmission tower that still had a visible 1929 installation date on it (the other towers on that line were probably the same age, but had too much patina to read).

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  5. Stewart Wood
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    Bit of winds and that would be a few city's & towns without power

    Me I would make them all hybrid powerlines with Functional Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

    Like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6s3nbmmmPs&NR=1

    They don't suffer with air turbulence in fact they thrive on it

    its funny all the pylons we have now can be retro fitted with these Vertical Axis Wind Turbines in the centre of each one of them maybe 3x per tower and best of all there quiet too

    Better yet Get rid of all lines and use pipes to carry Hydrogen and give every home a Hydrogen Fuel Cell

    The Cells Emit : Heat + Pure Water + Electricity

    The heat is Clean and with No emissions can use the cells to heat the house along with hot water

    What can you do with Hydrogen that you can’t do for long with Electricity on its own

    For one we can make it a liquid to store more of it you can also Store it more than a year in tanks.

    We have a lot of old mine shafts and under ground mines in the UK that would make fantastic liquid Hydrogen Storage areas

    Think about it Are long summer days we can store Liquid Hydrogen for are winters

    Waste water form the Cells could Give rise to Sewer Based power plants - using Archimedes Screw Turbines

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFCBe0SvUWM

    That’s right Your kettle and toilet flushing + Rain creates more Electricity & Hydrogen!!

    Hydrogen Will even solve water shortage problems here in the uk

    Pure Water can be used for Showers / Baths / Toilets / Washing Machines So Your own Fuel Cell Give them all water LOL

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