Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
1–10 of 41 posts
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#2Also in the same game, Kite: http://www.kitenergy.net/
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#3I briefly worked for a competitor of Ampyx.
I love the idea, but given that it took decades to scale traditional wind turbines which are much simpler by design to powers in the range of MW, I can't see this happening.
These systems are insanely complex, you need tethers, winches, a drone that flies 24/7 and can safely and autonomously start and land in many weather conditions. It also looks like google gave up on Makani, which had airborne generators.
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#4I briefly worked for a competitor of Ampyx. I love the idea, but given that it took decades to scale traditional wind turbines which are much simpler by design to powers in the range of MW, I can't see this happening. These systems are insanely complex, you need tethers, winches, a drone that flies 24/7 and can safely and autonomously start and land in many weather conditions. It also looks like google gave up on Mak…
Instead of landing, crash through a kinetic recovery system which charges a rail cannon.
Launch a space plane into orbit for the charging of solar cells. Still crash them back into recovery.
The space plane now is just a cannon ball or a cloud of ball shot. Make everything smaller to the scale of molecules.
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#5I briefly worked for a competitor of Ampyx. I love the idea, but given that it took decades to scale traditional wind turbines which are much simpler by design to powers in the range of MW, I can't see this happening. These systems are insanely complex, you need tethers, winches, a drone that flies 24/7 and can safely and autonomously start and land in many weather conditions. It also looks like google gave up on Mak…
True, it needs some infrastructure.
But on the other hand, this may be similarly complex/expensive as installing and maintaining a wind turbine on a tower that's 100m high is. These things tend to be pretty complicated and expensive as well. It's all about operational cost vs revenue in the end (and comparing that to other solutions). IMHO wind and solar are still making great leaps currently in cost effectiveness and efficiency. So you'd have to compete with/undercut that. Which is of course a challenge for just about any other form of energy generation currently (particularly anything nuclear of fossil fuel based).
The added advantage of this setup would be that you can land the things during a storm or for maintenance which potentially simplifies e.g. in the field repairs. Also, if they can be small enough that they can be mounted on a truck, deployment might be quicker or you might be able to re-deploy them to other areas. Currently building a new wind mill park is a large investment. Mass production of these things might enable more rapid roll out. So there are some upsides theoretically.
Safety might be a bigger issue. The cables would be a risk for planes and what happens if the cable snaps? Autonomous drones would be able to handle the latter probably (by crashing/landing in some safe spot). Also, lots of moving parts means those parts need more frequent maintenance/replacement. I imagine the stresses on the cable and mounts would be substantial (and proportional to the amount of power generated).
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#6I wonder how closely these can be deployed? Safe operation might require large distances between base stations. If they can't beat conventional wind mills in power per area, that may be a deal breaker in many scenarios.
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#7See also Magenn (I believe they're defunct now.) https://duckduckgo.com/?q=magenn
Their idea was to use inflatable Magnus effect generators to provide lift as well as power.
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#8Have you seen these guys (makani)?
Kiting in an figure-8 with turbines instead of propellers (actually used as propellers for liftoff).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6NW0QeKLZA
That thing is also huuuge: https://makanipower.com/makani/images/pages/technology/cta.j...
longer vid with sound: https://youtu.be/hYxeni2vVOs?t=60
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#9I wonder how closely these can be deployed? Safe operation might require large distances between base stations. If they can't beat conventional wind mills in power per area, that may be a deal breaker in many scenarios.
You can put them in the water with just an anchored buoy.
Re: Ampyx Power: Wind energy systems using tethered wings above 200 meters
#10Cleantechnica had a writer who spent some time taking a closer look at the claims made by companies in this space, a couple of links:
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/21/rip-google-makani-perha...
https://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/19/googles-makani-regulato...