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nova_robotics (Aug 12, 2024)
Couldn't find any answers online, so now for the guesses... feel free to contribute!!!
solar panel drying tower?
vertical axle windmill?
dust devil creation tower?
Considering the location, first thought is that it's powering an irrigation system. Those sails would provide a huge amount of torque for the gearing needed to run a large pump.
The hardware at the top of the tower is puzzling. It almost looks like a set of microwave antennas, but they are rotating. That doesn't seem to be ideal.
Way too complicated and not enough audible cussing for it to be a drilling rig. Maybe an art piece? Carousel ride for birds?
May some sort of antenna...
Corn mill?
"This country was founded by a bunch of slave owners that told us all men are created equal..." - George Carlin
With the highline power poles behind it on both sides, I would say that it is probably a combination solar and wind-powered generation system of some sort. The cellular-type antennas on top in the middle are kind of a mystery as notmally antennas do not rotate with the structure. Perhaps it is experimental.
It seems to me to be a rotating solar array-will catch the sun on a sequential basis all through the day. The array looks to turn to be at max gain angle without having to be manually rotated, each generating in turn. Most arrays are installed at best charging angle with lesser amounts of charge earlier and later in the day as sunlight waxes and wains.
on the other hand it looks like something Nikola Tesla would design.
Probably not solar - unless solar panels are now see through. If you watch the right side of the video you can see that the panels are transparent from one side.
If you watch the panels, they rotate to catch the wind on the left and rotate to feather the wind on the right side. I think the "antennas" on top are to tell the panels when to turn and to monitor the turning. What they are doing with all that power is a mystery. The large water tanks on the tower might be a clue. Lots of wire control cables amid the structure. Looks like a mechanical nightmare. Almost looks like sprinkler heads on the arms.
![](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.homemadetools.net%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D241537%23post241537&media=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fhmt-newsletter%2Fhmt_avatar_200.jpg&description=Mystery Manufacturing Process - GIF by Elizabeth Greene - It's a vertical axis wind turbine, the "blades" are made up of many vertical segments of "plastic" that flop open when going in the "wrong" direction to reduce drag and closed when going in the "right" direction to extract energy. The blades are slanted to make it self starting regardless of wind direction.
This is a big fellow, and I've never seen a design like this anywhere at this scale. It "Pin It")
It's a vertical axis wind turbine, the "blades" are made up of many vertical segments of "plastic" that flop open when going in the "wrong" direction to reduce drag and closed when going in the "right" direction to extract energy. The blades are slanted to make it self starting regardless of wind direction.
This is a big fellow, and I've never seen a design like this anywhere at this scale. It's very clever.
nova_robotics (Aug 12, 2024), whitebear (Aug 12, 2024)
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