LOWER COSTS
Stronger and more persistent winds combined with less material add up to lower costs. Levelised costs of energy are potentially less than 1/4 compared to wind turbines.
Stronger and more persistent winds combined with less material add up to lower costs. Levelised costs of energy are potentially less than 1/4 compared to wind turbines.
No tower, no blades. Kitepower systems use 90% less material. This makes the systems highly mobile and easy to deploy and maintain.
The system fits a 20ft ISO container which makes it extremely easy to be shipped anywhere you want.
Kitepower systems are more environmentally friendly than other renewables. The kite flies at higher altitudes which makes the system silent and almost invisible.
One of the greatest potentials for performance improvement in the system lies in the wing design. This component is low-cost and can easily be upgraded with time.
Kites operate dynamically to reach the strong and persistent winds at higher altitudes. The yearly energy yield of conventional wind turbines has the potential to be more than doubled.
Smart controls enable automatic system operation. Synchronised systems in park configurations allow for higher power densities than state of the art wind parks.
We make sure you can enjoy airborne wind energy already from day one. Get in touch and request the service level that meets your needs.
To sustain robust flight operation in a time-varying fluctuating wind environment the system hardware and the networked control system have to meet demanding requirements. The airborne hardware includes a Kite Control Unit (KCU), “flying brain” of the system which essentially consists of a remote-controlled cable manipulator, and the inflatable kite (soft-wing) with its bridle system. The KCU is equipped with high precision motors which pull the bridles hence control the behaviour of the kite during the flight and makes a use of an incorporated wind turbine capable to power its on-board electronics. Since actuators can be positioned close to the wing, control delays can be minimised, which is important for reliable operation of the kite, especially at larger tether lengths. The main cable of the system is a tether made of Dyneema®, highly preferred to other materials because of its high fatigue resistance, low weight and extreme strength. The type of wing used by the system is a Leading Edge Inflatable (LEI) kite. This type of kite is affordable, easy to transport as well as maintain and upgrade. Tube kites for kite surfing developed quickly over the past years and by choosing this concept Kitepower has further developed it for the power application. On the ground, the drum/generator module is responsible for traction power conversion while constantly monitoring and adapting the force in the tether. The separation of wing steering and power conversion at the ground allows for optimised functional designs. The control software includes two alternating autopilots, one for the lying figure eight maneuvers during tether reel-out and one for the reel-in phase.
The electricity generation works in two phases:
TRACTION
The kite is flown in a cross-wind figure of eight pattern to achieve a high pulling force in order to reel out the cable from the winch in the ground station.
RETRACTION
When the maximum line length is reached, the kite's profile is adjusted in order to reel-in the cable with low force using a small fraction of energy generated in the previous phase.
Repeated in continuous cycles, this procedure results in positive net energy output.
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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 691173.
TU Delft, Aerospace Engineering Faculty, 13th floor
Kluyverweg 1, 2629HS Delft
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