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98 – Kitepower: Airborne Wind Energy
This episode is a conversation about airborne wind energy. In particular, we talk to Roland Schmehl who leads a team of researchers and engineers at TU Delft who develop the Kitepower system. In this system, kites are automatically flown in a pumping pattern to extract energy from wind as an alternative to classical ground-based wind turbines. In the conversation we cover the benefits of airborne wind energy in general and of kites in particular and we cover in some detail how the Delft system works technically.
- Kitepower
- Wubbo Ockels
- ASSET
- Airborne Wind Energy
- Miles Loyd: Crosswind Kite Power (PDF)
- Angle of Attack
- Makani Power
- Dyneema
- Capacity Factor
- Skysails
- Mutiny Kites
- Genetrix
- Rigid Body Dynamics
- Multibody System
- Finite Element Method (FEM)
- Fluid-structure Interaction
- Model Predictive Control
- Airborne Wind Energy Consortium
- Swiss Kite Power (ETH)
- ARPA-e
- TNO
Posted: July 5th, 2012 under podcast, podcast (en).
Tags: aviation, climate, energy
Comments
Comment from MaNo
Time July 11, 2012 at 6:30 pm
If you hit these cables, I am sure it will be a problem. Consider that they can hold more than a ton. If a sports plane or a glider would hit one of those, it would at the very least slow down the plane considerably, which, if you are slow enough, will make you fall out of the sky. Whether you can see them? Depends on the lighting conditions, I guess, but I suspect you wouldn’t. It is hard to see ropeway cables, and those are much thicker! You’d have to have significant restricted airspace around them.
Markus
Comment from Kees
Time July 19, 2012 at 7:44 am
Look the video kite power by http://www.xs4green.com
Comment from Geoffrey
Time December 6, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Good interview. Relaxed and clear discussion of all the details. Interesting to hear about the long-standing height record. The chain of kites makes good sense. With a few smarts in coordinating the various wings and a bit more durability of the materials in UV it will be a sensible way of generating renewable energy. I liked the approach to the complexity of modelling.
Comment from MaNo
Time December 6, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I am really a bit sceptical wrt. to having groups of such kites “flying” around all over the place. As a glider pilot, that is going to be a serious impediment to my ability to fly in those areas. And you need big areas to make the kite thing work in a meaningful way!
Comment from Joseph
Time July 11, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Great episode, renewable energy always excites me. I find myself viewing systems and imagining how much energy can be reclaimed from them. Regardless, I would have liked to hear what might happen if an average plane at an average speed and elevation hit a considerable amount of these cables. Would they even be visible to a pilot?