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by prbuckley 3213 days ago
Does anyone know what the status of using kite powered systems for off shore power generation is? I know makani has been working on that for over a decade now, it always seemed like a really promising approach to me but I haven't heard of any commercial applications of it. Here is a link to makani...

https://x.company/makani/about/

1 comments

Kite power is one of my pet hopes. I keep hoping it will gain some significant traction. Looks like there may be a a test power installation going up in Scotland https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/kite-power-station...
What happens to these kite power stations when there's no wind to keep them flying?
The Makani ones that Google were funding are basically wing shaped drone planes on a tether, usually the rotors on the front of the wing turn in the wind to generate power but they use their rotors running backwards under power provided by the tether to land vertically back at the base when there's no wind.
When the jet stream dies we have bigger problems than a small drop in electrical production.
like what else?