How will this work with aviation? I know it probably won't affect most IFR flights, but still possibly dangerous for VFR. Will there need to be a new restricted area for each deployment?
Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
41–50 of 175 posts
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#42How will this work with aviation? I know it probably won't affect most IFR flights, but still possibly dangerous for VFR. Will there need to be a new restricted area for each deployment?
Depending on the altitude, they could keep these within class G airspace, which means VFR's job is to see and avoid. I think that's a pretty defensible solution as a pilot who spends all of his time in VFR operating in Class E/G airspace.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#43People cannot be anywhere in the radius of the kite cable. Kinda limits where is can be deployed. But the quick deployment could work for some situations.
This is not correct. Untrained people can't be inside the flight zone while operating. This is roughly the downwind quarter of the potential flight zone.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#44People cannot be anywhere in the radius of the kite cable. Kinda limits where is can be deployed. But the quick deployment could work for some situations.
Are these less visible than traditional wind mills? If so, maybe they could be used at sea and get around the hatred of wind power as an eye sore.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#45Gotta be more to it. They blithly say, reeling it in takes a fraction of the energy it generates when it pulls the line out. But that's nonsense on the face of it. I'm guessing, it changes it's wind profile, maybe going edge-on or closing up, to make it easy to pull down again. Gotta be something.
>The energy generated by the system while reeling out is greater than the energy consumed to reel the kite back in.
There's something about it that just triggers the "perpetual motion machine" identification heuristic.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#46At first look, it seems like simply by having so much less mass of material involved that you have a good head start at competing on LCOE, even if the system needs the kite and tether replaced every 5-10 years.
I think the biggest roadblock would be making sure it can return to the perch with high reliability otherwise you will have a lot of service calls for kites that landed on the ground.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#47Gotta be more to it. They blithly say, reeling it in takes a fraction of the energy it generates when it pulls the line out. But that's nonsense on the face of it. I'm guessing, it changes it's wind profile, maybe going edge-on or closing up, to make it easy to pull down again. Gotta be something.
Only as much nonsense as rowing a boat without taking the paddle out of the water. In that specific example, you're going to be going in circles, but you will be moving.
You can propel a boat forwards with only one oar, without lifting it from the water. It's a useful skill, Kayakers use the same stroke to move sideways, and for stability in rough water. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_sculling
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#48There's been a recent video by the German "Sendung mit der Maus" (basically how does stuff work for little children) about these kind of generators. I did not double check if the company in the video is the German one mentioned in the article, but chances are high. Video and subs are in German only, but it's less than 10 minutes and one can see a little how it works.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only as much nonsense as rowing a boat without taking the paddle out of the water. In that specific example, you're going to be going in circles, but you will be moving.
You can propel a boat forwards with only one oar, without lifting it from the water. It's a useful skill, Kayakers use the same stroke to move sideways, and for stability in rough water. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_sculling
Exactly, that's why calling this concept nonsense is so weird. It might be a tiny bit counterintuitive at first glance, but there's plenty of examples of it all around.
Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation
#50How will this work with aviation? I know it probably won't affect most IFR flights, but still possibly dangerous for VFR. Will there need to be a new restricted area for each deployment?
A project I did a couple years ago was to have an onboard SDR that communicates automatically with airplanes in the vicinity, or switching to manual where the drone operator can communicate as if they are “on-board” through the internet by a mic on ground. I can see something like this is doable, with a modified system to fit the length flight, after all, the position is fixed so I don’t think it would be a problem.