People can live in the air. We do not need to build boxes on the ground. Let's leave the Earth to what it does best: grow food and purify water. This blog has resources on how to live in the air, to grow a community of people who can set the regulations and bureaucracies needed for an international, free and fair Law of the Air.
Joseph Cory, the environmental architect visionary of Geotectura, with Technion aerospace engineer Dr. Pini Gurfil, developed helium-filled platforms constructed from a fabric coated with photovoltaic cells.
Called Sunhope, the idea is to deploy solar energy-harvesting systems with a low environmental footprint.
The balloons are made to last about a year without no maintenance. Cory and Gurfil estimate that one or two balloons could power a home.
The balloons are easy to deliver and set up. Cory and Gurfil have made prototypes and conducted research. They found that a 10 foot balloon delivers about a kilowatt of electricity (equivalent to 25 square meters of solar panels). Target cost is about $4,000 per balloon, less than half the price of a typical ground-based grid.
This YouTube is Hebrew television coverage, but has Cory speaking English, and shows how the balloon's are constructed.
The idea is a nice innovation over Cool Earth Solar's balloons--theirs are ground based. Each 8-foot-diameter balloon is made of plastic (like that used to bag potato chips), with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated, the balloon's geometry concentrates inbound sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell at the focal point. This transparent upper surface protects the cell from the environment, including rain, insects and dirt. A single cell placed in this balloon generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without such a concentrator. The balloon is strong enough to support a person's weight, and is tested to withstand winds of up to 125 miles per hour.