If you leave half the chairs and put the turbines in the other half and spin the wheel at about 30 or 40 RPM you might be able to recoup some of the energy from the motor that drives the wheel and give the riders a ride they will remember for the rest of their lives if they survive.

how many idiots can propose putting turbines on everything, ive seen about 20 of these ideas on cars, and the same argument that gets listed on every one of those ideas applies here. every bit of energy you get out is extra energy you put in. for every watt you get out, you have added one watt's worth( more actually since you don't have 100% efficiency) of air resistance, and you are using 1 watt more power to turn it. the only way you reduce total power usage of the system is to reduce total resistance of the system.

Yeah, this is kinda like a water wheel, just using air. But even something like the continuous flow of the water doesnt turn a water wheel that fast to produce enough energy like you want. A large ferris wheel weights to much. It would have to be super light, and then supposing it did turn, the output for something like that would be small, and it would be a hazard since its not exactly aerodynamic, it would probibly keel over in a nasty storm from a good gust.

The original idea is worthless, but it does bring up an interesting idea. How about a wind-powered Ferris wheel? I mean a Ferris wheel that has blades radiating from the hub to the rim that simply provide the power to turn the ride. This way you could use wind power instead of a noisy, smelly diesel engine. The entire wheel could rotate to face the wind like a regular wind turbine. The blades could feather (change pitch) to control the speed. They could even pitch far enough to provide reverse power to stop it when people want to get on and off. It wouldn't work when there's no wind, but it would be the ultimate "green" amusement park ride when there is.

Green power on a Ferris wheel would probably be more dependable if the lower end had turbine blades or buckets that dipped into a source of flowing water.

I do think that this could work--on the principal of an anemometer--the 'buckets' would be aerodynamica in one direction and draggy in the other.

It does introduce the difficulty that you have to aim the wheel so that the driving-buckets can face the wind, since an anemometer is horizontal, where a ferris wheel isn't.

I've noticed that a ferris wheel spends more time stopped (for loading/unloading) than most rides, so to stop it while you have these buckets on top trying to turn, it would be a problem. You'll have to incorporate a method to 'feather' them so they won't produce enough force to topple the system.

But as far as energy goes, you'll still need a motor to run the ride when there isn't any wind and you need income. Fairs often operate at night when winds are low. Also, you'll need to run a governer to assure the speed doesn't get too high.

Finally, I suspect the wheel would be fairly inefficient at making electricity compared to a real wind turbine, so it may not be worth it. But I haven't done the math on the cost to turn a ferris wheel. Maybe I'm wrong.

More paying riders may be better economics than less electricity.