Harnessing High-Altitude Wind Power

Roberts, Bryan W.; Shepard, D.H.; Caldeira, K.; Cannon, Mark; Eccles, D.G.; Grenier, Agathe; Freidin, Jonathan F.

doi:10.1109/tec.2006.889603

Cited by 107 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Which wing is a better choice should thus depend not only on the cost per square meter of wing but also on the overall efficiency factor that can be expected, given the wind statistics at a particular site. The idea of accessing winds at altitudes of approximately 10 km is also currently under investigation 26 . To get a rough idea of the efficiency factor that such a system might have, we begin by assessing the weight-to-strength ratio of the tether:…”

Section: A Practical Upper Bound For a Generic Kite Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, at half load (or 70 % of the full-load wind speed), the maximum efficiency factor is 0.1. The system proposed by Roberts et al 26 relies on having a generator in the air. This can be expected to significantly increase the system weight, further reducing the efficiency.…”

Section: A Practical Upper Bound For a Generic Kite Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, kites can easily access altitudes of several hundred meters, where the wind is stronger and less turbulent 30,31 . Some very ambitious projects even aim to harness winds at altitudes of several kilometers, where the wind is predicted to be almost an order of magnitude stronger than near the surface 26 . A number of different concepts exist for exploiting the aerodynamic force acting on an airborne wing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More ambitious proposals include two interconnected kites 16 , several kites connected to a ground-based merry-go-round 8 , and large quad copters hovering at an angle to the wind 26 . This paper is concerned with the efficiency of kite-power systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This yields a simple analytic expression for the maximum derivable power, applicable to almost any airborne system of wings. The efficiency calculation is applied to two systems currently under development, namely, pumping-cycle generators 2,29 and very high altitude (jet-stream) wind power 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of the maximum efficiency of kite-power systems

Costello

François

et al. 2015

Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy

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This paper analyzes the maximum power that a kite, or system of kites, can extract from the wind. Firstly, a number of existing results on kite system efficiency are reviewed. The results that are generally applicable require significant simplifying assumptions, usually neglecting the effects of inertia and gravity. On the other hand, the more precise analyses are usually only applicable to a particular type of kite-power system. Secondly, a novel result is derived that relates the maximum power output of a kite system to the angle of the average aerodynamic force produced by the system. This result essentially requires no limiting assumptions, and as such it is generally applicable. As it considers average forces that must be balanced, inertial forces are implicitly accounted for. In order to derive practically useful results, the maximum power output is expressed in terms of the system overall strength-to-weight ratio, the tether angle and the tether drag through an efficiency factor. The result is a simple analytic expression that can be used to calculate the maximum power-producing potential for a system of wings, flying either dynamically or statically, supported by a tether. As an example, the analysis is applied to two systems currently under development, namely, pumping-cycle generators and jet-stream wind power.

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Section: A Practical Upper Bound For a Generic Kite Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Practical Upper Bound For a Generic Kite Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%