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Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#121

Post by dtgriscom »

jeffbee wrote: post #96
londons_explore wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind turbines can be built big enough that the blades, at the lowest point, are higher than almost all other land uses, except perhaps forestry. To be honest, the access roads are probably the biggest real impediment to using the land around a wind turbine. Can't exactly farm millions of acres of corn with robotic combine harvesters with a criss-cross of access roads to the base of every turbine.

And yet. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0700265,-95.6508704,3a,60y,9...

Beautiful image: thanks.

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#122

Post by [deleted] »

londons_explore wrote: post #92
kingkawn wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Seems easy to teach the robots to not harvest on the road

Odd shapes and constantly starting/stopping the plougher/seeder/harvester mean you get less ROI on your equipment. Farming is super tight margins - if your machines waste 20% of the time starting and stopping every time they pass over a road, your farms profits are wiped out. This is true whether the machines are robot driven or not, and it's the reason most commercial farms have huuuuuge fields rather than lots of s…

[deleted]

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#123

Post by tomatotomato37 »

jeffbee wrote: post #96
londons_explore wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind turbines can be built big enough that the blades, at the lowest point, are higher than almost all other land uses, except perhaps forestry. To be honest, the access roads are probably the biggest real impediment to using the land around a wind turbine. Can't exactly farm millions of acres of corn with robotic combine harvesters with a criss-cross of access roads to the base of every turbine.

And yet. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0700265,-95.6508704,3a,60y,9...

That's a turbine in the middle of active farmfield, off a dirt road, servicing a town a bit under a mile away that is barely 10 city blocks wide at its widest point. In the middle of Iowa.

My point just because you can build the turbines to clear everything, there are areas in this nation where there's just no point to doing that; and it's more economical to just make them shorter and put the money towards something more useful

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#124

Post by dtgriscom »

nirolo wrote: post #48

There'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. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aqfFZDWiJOI

Very cool. I noticed that the radio-controlled unit that steers the kite has its own little wind turbine for power.

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#125

Post by dtgriscom »

scblock wrote: post #117

Article needs an editor: "As of late 2022, the world contained about 900 megawatts of wind power capacity." I've worked on single projects larger than that. Presumably they mean gigawatts?

900GW it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_country

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#126

Post by Abekkus »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #62

why not a blimp? Come to think of it, I'm kind of curious why a RC blimps have never become popular. I own DJI drones. But no blimps.

Helium supply is an issue and blimps are risky in adverse weather. Also these kite models keep the generator on the ground, saves from trying to float so much delicate weight.

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#127

Post by adrianmonk »

tamimio wrote: post #54
smusamashah wrote: post #20

How is the kite raised initially and what happens when air stops, how is it re-raised? Reading the article seems like it's pulled back if air is stopping, and slowly released based on air speed perhaps.

I wonder how they will deal with bird attacks. Falcons and eagles (ironically, they share the same name with this kite) are territorial and will go after these drones. I once had a huge heavy-lift drone that got attacked too. But with a pilot nearby, the easy solution is to fly to a higher altitude, that seems to determine who rules the sky in their eyes apparently. I’m not sure how this kite will manage such situati…

Wind power machine idea #1: turbines.

Potential concern with idea #1: the machines may kill birds.

Wind power machine idea #2: kites.

Potential concern with idea #2: birds may kill the machines.

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#128

Post by nothercastle »

dtx1 wrote: post #40
nothercastle wrote: post #19

I don’t think you can make a kite that can last a decade of load. We just don’t have materials strong enough. Also you need a sophisticated algorithm to fly it and never crash

As someone who regularly flies hobby kites, I think it can be done. Modern kites are made of nylon and kevlar. With regular maintenance these kites should last at least a decade. Cables might have to be replaced every few years. As for the flying algorithm, I doubt it has to be very sophisticated at all, especially if the kite is itself designed to self right and stabilise. After all, a single line kite has 0 control…

I sort of assumed it would power and depower like a kiteboarding kite to create work. You could probably depower by collapsing the kite leading edge and dragging it back in but that seems less efficient than flying it in a figure 8 to power and depower.

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#129

Post by xg15 »

It's an amazing project, but, out of curiosity: Why do all the AWE projects except Google's seem to use the reel-in/reel-out approach and don't attach turbines to the kite itself? Reel-in/reel-out seems a lot more complicated, power inefficient and taxing on the material than just having the kite up there (semi-) permanently.

I assume there are some technical reasons why turbines are less practical, but could anyone explain what those are?

Re: Flying kites deliver container-sized power generation

#130

Post by pfdietz »

SCM-Enthusiast wrote: post #110
jitl wrote: post #4

I’m happy to see this idea continues to develop. I was worried its failure was foregone when Google shuttered their moonshot Makani in 2020. It seems like this iteration is simpler.

for some reason, this always happens with the google moonshots; They come at it from the wrong angle. Someone comes along with a slightly simplier solution after google scrapes the whole thing as uneconomical or beats them to the punch on using a far more technical solution. Don't seem to have a big "Cost per KWH" KPI's internally nor a sense of urgency.

I wonder how Malta is doing. The News blurbs at their website seem... ok?
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