ABSTRACT

Gin poles are used for installation and ease of maintenance at ground level, and because of availability, cost, and scheduling of cranes, gin poles are useful for installation of medium size wind turbines in remote and island locations. The Alternative Energy Institute (AEI) tested a prototype turbine as an electric-to-electric wind assist system connected to a set of six oil well pump jacks for Phillips 66 near Borger, Texas. An unit tested by AEI that had a flexbeam was the PM wind turbine. Lift translators need wind from a predominate direction as large units cannot be oriented. A number of foundations were constructed and a few lift translators were built during the early 1980s in California in San Gorgonio Pass, Altamont Pass, and Tehachapi Pass, however, they were never really operational. Julius D. Madaras proposed mounting vertical rotating cylinders on railroad cars propelled by the Magnus effect around a circular track, a lift translator.