the compressed air tanks require tremendous PSI. how can a windmill fill up an air tank that requires thousands of pounds of pressure?

This could work, but it wouldn't be as practical as the "conventional" method of using the windmill to generate electricity that's fed directly into the grid and use an electric motor to compress the air for the car. The windmill is going to generate the same total power regardless of whether it's generating electricity or compressed air. The advantage of electricity is that it takes advantage of the existing infrastructure. Instead of having to have a tank to store the air (when your car's away), the grid acts as your storage tank. And it's effectively an infinite tank. If the wind doesn't blow enough, you still have grid power for your car.

This works with both electric and pneumatic cars and with various power sources. (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.)

I love this idea, and I live in Kansas, which I think is like the 5th windiest state. But usually it's only windy during the day-time at altitudes under 50 meters. So your daytime tank would probably have to fill your car.

Compressed air is very dangerous. It stores a great deal of energy, but a failure can release it all at once, like an explosion.

But I take exeption to theironman--work is work, it doesn't matter how high the pressure is, it just changes the design and speed of the compressor. Dwane seems to agree with this too. Dwane's point about a grid is valid--you could wake to a not-charged car on windless weeks, but converting from mechanical energy to electricity then back would likely lose some efficiency.

Yeah I thought about that too. First off, if you gear reduce the output, you could make high pressure, it would just take longer to fill. I already know that air powered cars require 3600-4200 psi. However, air doesn't weigh anything and a carbon fiber tank shouldn't weigh that much either.. vs. a giant battery for an electric car that still doesn't store that much power. That's what I was trying to get around. You could theoretically produce electricity from the windmill which then powers a compressor, but think about the efficiencies lost by transmitting power twice.

Yes, converting to electricity will cost something in efficiency, but I still think it's more practical. Bbraden, air is light, but it does weigh something. When compressed, it's density increases which can make it's weight significant. I calculated that at 4000 psi, a cubic foot of air weighs a little over 21 lbs. (you might want to double check that though). If your tank is large, that could definitely add up, but it would not be a big problem.

not many people would do this, this is going to be to hard to even get a wind mill and the wind power car, i thought it was to make one