Can these giant, high-altitude kites power the world?
[it can also cool the world by bringing the extreme cold of stratosphere to earth for refrigeration and air conditioning-my opinion-leads to less pollution and energy need ]
According to the research team behind the company, jet stream winds that blow at high altitudes are still unexplored as wind energy sources, and they could help solve the difficult challenge of bringing electricity to the many parts of the world that do not have nearly enough of it, including Africa and parts of Asia. If properly harnessed, these winds could also help displace dirty fossil fuel energy sources, such as coal and natural gas, thereby lowering emissions of global warming pollutants such as carbon dioxide.
High altitude winds represent a powerful and endless energy source as they are much faster and persistent than the winds available to conventional wind turbines mounted closer to the ground, the company says.
KiteGen technology transforms the kinetic energy of the tropospheric winds into electricity by using kites and energy conversion devices the company calls "dynamos." The kites are not an ordinary kite that you'd take to the beach, either. The kite structures are composed of large wings tethered by strong polymeric stripes that are up to 3,300 feet long. The kites are driven by a high tech control system that receives information from avionic sensors installed on the kite, and uses this information to determine what angle the wing has to be at in order to exploit the maximum amount of wind.
According to KiteGen, the energy produced is renewable, clean, cheaper than fossil fuels and doesn’t require big heavy machines like conventional wind turbines. already in use –- the weight of a KiteGen machine is around 20 tons compared to the turbines weighting around 2,000 tons. More importantly, KiteGen says it can produce three times the amount of energy from one kite-powered unit than from a conventional wind turbine, which typically are located between 150 to 200 feet high.
Created in 2003 by engineer Massimo Ippolito, the technology company has been in existence for a decade. The company says its products are now ready to be produced at an industrial scale, although kite-generated power is still largely treated as a far-off idea within the renewable energy community, in part because it could require new and expensive licensing to ensure the kites do not interfere with aviation.
KiteGen says its systems have already been bought by the Saudi Royal Family and an undisclosed Chinese company.
These photos of KiteGen's testing, design and manufacturing facilities were taken in May, 2015.
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