Wind kites could soon provide substantial energy to the masses
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Kites that capture wind power may just be the future of renewable energy, according to a report by Deutsche Welle (DW).
This is because, at a height of 200 meters (656 feet) and more, winds tend to blow so strongly that they could be used to generate more electricity than we need and much more than wind turbines on land can produce.
Moritz Diehl, who heads the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg, told DW that wind kites could be one of the "most promising" technologies for generating renewable energy in the future.
"You see all the sky above conventional turbines, and you think all this wind energy is just blowing there, and it's not used," he said.
Stephan Wrage, CEO of the German wind power company SkySails-Power, wants to make the "largest yet untapped source of renewable energy worldwide" suitable for mass use.
In August of 2022, we reported on one company making great strides in the field.
“It’s cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to transport, and also has higher efficiency,” told Ars Technica at the time Florian Bauer, co-CEO and chief technology officer of Kitekraft, a Munich-based company developing a kite power system.
The carbon footprint is also much smaller. “If you have all those advantages, why would anyone build a conventional wind turbine?”
Much work to be done
However, the airborne wind was still in its infancy, and it does not seem to have progressed much further yet. If it wants to develop more, it will have to overcome many hurdles, such as proving that it is safe and reliable and does not cause any noise pollution.
Rishikesh Joshi, an aerospace engineering researcher at the Delft University of Technology, told DW "it will still take a few years" before the technology makes a difference. "The wind industry also took around 40 years to develop to be this cheap," he told DW on Monday.
The hope is that one day kites can be complemented by wind power turbines to offer as much renewable energy as possible. For now, however, we will have to rely on our trusted and clean wind power farms.
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