But most companies, like SkySails, are pursuing an approach that makes use of steerable, computer-controlled kites that fly patterns in the air to harvest more energy.Īirborne wind energy systems use two basic ways to generate electricity. Over the last few decades, there have been a number of proposals for taking advantage of these speedier, elevated winds, including sending turbines up on lighter-than-air craft, or suspending them from stationary kites. So the higher you go, the faster the wind can travel - at 500 meters, the breeze moves between 3 to 7 kilometers per hour faster, on average, than it does at 100 meters. Wind close to the ground tends to be slowed down by friction with trees, buildings and hills, and the ground itself. They envision hundreds of kites grouped together on wind farms, providing electricity to the grid. The unit is designed for use in remote locations away from the power grid.Įventually, companies want to build larger kites capable of generating megawatts of power. That’s small compared with a typical 2.75-megawatt wind turbine but is similar in scale to many portable industrial diesel generators. In operation, the kite makes large, graceful figure eights in the sky and powers a ground-based generator capable of an average output of 80 kilowatts - enough to supply electricity to about 60 average US households. The kite is attached by an 800-meter tether to a ground station contained in a shipping container. Its production model consists of a soft, steerable kite up to 180 square meters in area. In 2021, Hamburg-based SkySails Power became the first company to offer a commercial product. But small versions are already on the market. Most companies are working on relatively small pilot projects, and none have scaled up their technology to the megawatt range that would make them comparable to conventional wind turbines. And it will need to demonstrate that it is safe, won’t harm wildlife and won’t create intolerable noise and visual disturbances for neighbors.Īt the moment, kite power is in its infancy. “If you have all those advantages, why would anyone build a conventional wind turbine?”īut to become a widespread source of electricity, airborne wind energy, as it’s also called, needs to overcome a number of technological and commercial hurdles, as Bauer and colleagues describe in an upcoming paper in the 2022 Annual Review of Control, Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The carbon footprint is also much smaller, he says. “It’s cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to transport and also has higher efficiency,” says Florian Bauer, co-CEO and chief technology officer of Kitekraft, a Munich-based company developing a kite power system. Kites might also be a better choice for offshore wind power, and one day could even replace at least some anchored towers now in use. If they succeed, kites could make it possible to build wind farms on land that isn’t windy enough for conventional wind turbine towers. Flying massive kites 200 meters or more above the ground, companies are using the wind they find there to generate electricity.Īt least 10 firms in Europe and the United States are developing variations of this kind of kite power. Any kid who’s ever flown a kite has learned the lesson: Once you can get the kite off the ground and high into the air, you’re more likely to find a steady breeze to keep it aloft.Ī fledgling wind power industry is taking that lesson to heart.
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