Kites as the Future of Renewable Energy

[DavidKnight]

Below is a link to a 5:25 minute talk given in February 2009 on kites taking over windmills as the future of wind generated power. I wonder if all of our time on the water (ice) could be counted as job experience in this potentially emerging green industry?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/saul ... nergy.html

There's quite a few other interesting presentations on ted.com- it's worth checking out.

[McKite]

Thanks for the post; the video is inspirational & well worth watching.
How about the speed of that boat under kite power - wow!

[quetico]

Knight-

Good info...

Hey it was good running into you a few weeks ago out on the Excelsior side of Big Island (SW). This is my first year kititng and I launch from Excelsior and try to do several runs down to Wayzata and back on either/both Fridays or Sundays.

I am fired up and love this sport! I just got back from a week of powder skiing off lone peak at Big Sky - it was awesome, but I still had a ton of fun snowkiting this season.

Later- Quetico Scott

[Travii]

Thank you for that video.

I am an aerospace engineer who specializes in the optimization of hypersonic air-breathing vehicles. I'm starting to realize that the optimization of kites for low speed incompressible flow applications such as power generation is not too much of a stretch. Nice find. Very inspiring.

Travis

[Tighe]

yes very cool...and inspirational.

thanks

[flynhi]

Very Cool !! What I didn't see was how the flying kite was able to convert its motion into usable electiricity. Were they using blades on the leading edge, or some form of back and forth pulling mechanism on the ground, or...?

[Travii]

I am unclear on how the energy is transferred too. Anyone?

[tom_latcham]

Of course this is just a guess. But I see the kite is going back and forth through the window. So the as the base swings back and forth, they must capture the energy from the base swivel. If you had a bunch of these they could also pump sea water. Then when production is higher than demand the water could be pumped up into a resevoir for power production on no wind days. Also the most expensive part of de-salination of salt water to fresh is getting the seawater to a high pressure for filtering. I know the power I feel from my kites. Imagine a very large kite high in the jet stream. You could not only make power, but fresh water.
TL

[Bryce]

The kites are all computer controlled.. I supposed they could move the kites back and forth and do something to do with depowering and powering the kite in different situations.

[Travii]

After a bit of research, it looks like there are several methods currently used to convert the kite's dynamic motion into shaft power:

(1) Reel method
(2) Hub method
(3) Laddermill method

I can also imagine a torque arm that swings left and right to utilize the forces from the figure 8 flight pattern.

Travis

[kenais]

Pretty cool but what happens to the kites when the wind stops blowing?

[Bryce]

At at a high altitude the wind doesn't (hardly ever) stop.



I suppose when it does they will have wind up the lines and bring the kites down.

[flynhi]

That is really amazing stuff!! I am pretty excited about it, although as a pilot I must admit to a little apprehension of having kites scattered across the country at thousands of feet. I'm sure for the most part the industrial versions would be grouped together and well marked on aviation charts, but there are lots of people out there now with their own solar and wind generators. I would sure hate to tangle with the lines of a 50m + kite!!

[Tom L]

oK...I've seen these kite power scenarios for a number of years. Great ideas, but can they be applied in real life weather situations. What the heck happens when thunderstorms hit, or a sudden wind shift. We've all seen the wind switch 180° in 2 minutes when a summer cold front hits. These devices need to be 1,000's of feet in the air. I can't see how these complex kites and there related equipment can adapt to our changing weather. In the summer they would have to be reeled in on a daily basis. I would love to see these ideas excecuted but when i look at all the kitemares I've witnessed over the years, and then I think about these huge kite power devices. I'm sorry but I see one giant cluster.

[Bryce]

I was thinking if you were high enough you'd be able to go above some small storms.


But if were doing this. It probably would be a good think to stick out in the desert or someother place with constant winds and little people.

[Tom L]

OK...good thinking. But so you go above the thunderstorms, 35,000 ft. Thats 6 miles of kite lines. They weight of the lines ruins the equation. This concept works on paper but I just don't see the practical application.

I've seen the Kite Powered ships. These make a little more sense in that they are flown at low altitude in trade winds and can be reeled in with in 20 minutes or so.

[JRN]

NOT TO TOOT ONES OWN PETER LYNN, BUT...They have been doing some R&D utilizing their kites' trait of staying parked at the zenith. They simply employ a spring loaded reel on a generator which makes power on the ascent and is brought to earth when the wind drops by the spring. Maybe some capacitors to store the excess charge during electrical storms.
As Yogi said,"ITS BACK TO THE FUTURE ALL OVER AGAIN!" Seen any DeLoreans on E-Bay?

[Barry P]

In addition to power generation, kites are now being used to power two large ocean going ships.

'SkySails' started a development program in 2001 and is in the final 12 months of the pilot which is deploying 160M Kites.

http://www.skysails.info/

Cust annual fuel consumption up to 35% - pretty cool.

[Denis]

Cool video David. The speaker, Saul Grittith co-owns Makani Power with Don Montague, the kite designer for Naish. They are developing kite power generation. They also have THE Peter Lynn on staff. I think that there was a topic on the forum about a year ago. Cool idea, cool company.

http://www.makanipower.com/team.html