Wait until you hear what Col. Mustard is up to!
A project in Co Mayo is generating renewable electricity through the flying of kites, which its operator has described as a potential “game changer” in the wind energy sector.
It is being conducted on a bogland just outside Bangor Erris, located on a landscape one might expect in a Star Wars.
The site, which is the first designated airborne wind energy test site in the world is being operated by Kitepower, a zero emissions energy solutions spin-off from Delft University in the Netherlands.
Kitepower’s system employs a yo-yo effect, where a kite, measuring 60sq/m is flown at altitudes of up to 425m attached to a rope that is wound around a drum - which itself is connected to a ground-based generator.
The kites can generate 2.5 to 4 tonnes of force on the tether.
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I can see this being useful for everything where you normally would use portable diesel generators - remote locations, temporary installations and similar stuff.
I’m guessing there’s no way to generate power by simply pulling continuously on something — we’d just dangle large boulders off cliffs and be done with it.
So how does this generate power? Add a large spring to the generating end, kite pulls away, spring pulls it back, rinse + repeat? 🤔
The article talks a little about it. It’s more of an unwind+rewind cycle:
The pull from this force then rotates the ground-based drum at a high speed.
This rotation then generates electricity that can be stored in a battery system for deployment wherever and whenever it is needed.
After 45 seconds, the kites are levelled up so that the pull from the wind is momentarily minimised.
This enables the tether to be wound back in, using only a fraction of the electricity generated when it was being spun out.
The result is a net gain in renewable power at the simple cost of flying a kite.
Then the cycle is repeated, again and again, potentially for hours on end.
It makes sense to me. I hope it catches on!
Thank you! Weird, I thought I read the whole thing, maybe there was an ad block or something and I missed the rest 🤔
Clever system!
