Quote:
Originally Posted by brennerator
When youre braking wouldnt the fans help conserve some energy.
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Not really, no. Unless you're traveling extremely fast (wind turbines generate power approximately proportional to the fourth power of wind speed), or unless your fan blades are
huge (think helicopter), you will lose more energy by having to accelerate the weight of the fans than you can possibly recover by letting them spin as you slow down.
You can get a much greater overall benefit by carefully streamlining the vehicle to
avoid wind resistance. That helps reduce energy needs the entire time you are moving, where the fans can only provide a theoretical benefit for the first few seconds of braking.