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by olau
1883 days ago
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Regarding the risk - I don't think this characterization is doing the issue justice. It's really about decades of building up a manufacturing capacity with suppliers, etc. to get to a position where wind turbines are now competitive because of this manufacturing capacity. For an alternative to develop, it is not enough that it is slightly better. And both turbines driven by kites and vertical turbines are known tech, with known problems. They are likely not slightly better. Early wind pioneers knew about vertical turbines. They have some nice properties. But also some not so nice ones. And this paper does not study vertical vs. horizontal as far as I can tell from a cursory look. It studies what happens with vertical turbines in a small farm. |
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Kites have the potential of much lower material costs to produce energy. If you have a pumping cycle kite, the "support structure" is the tether, compared to the tower and foundation required for a HAWT. The problems are indeed well known: 1. Tether material difficulties. 2. Need for self-launching 3. Airspace sharing problems at heights of kites 4. Controller design. This last one is what intrigues me personally.
The paper looks at vertical turbine arrangements, but the linked article about the paper starts with "The research suggests that the now-familiar sight of traditional propeller wind turbines may be eventually replaced by the sight of wind farms containing more compact and efficient vertical turbines." I had to respond to this rather wishful statement.