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Power station driven by kites will be set up in Scotland

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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Kite Power Solutions is building its power station at the Ministry of Defence's West Freugh range in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, and will be in operation by March 2017.
http://www.kitepowersolutions.com/


The firm claims kite power will halve the cost of offshore wind energy, dispensing with the need for government subsidies



The station produces power via a pair of kites attached to two spool drums connected to electricity turbines.

As one kite rises up to a height of 2,461 feet (750 metres), it pulls a tether and then flies in a figure of eight pattern, turning the turbine.

The kites work in tandem so while one falls, the other rises, generating electricity continuously.

A full-sized kite will be 131 feet (40 metres) wide and able to generate two to three megawatts of electricity, comparable to a 328-foot (100m) conventional turbine.

Planning permission has been granted for the 500 kilowatt demonstration system at West Freugh, and the company believes it will be an important stepping stone in developing commercial systems within the next few years.

David Ainsworth, the firm's business development director, said: 'This is the third evolution of our technology and the next step after the 500kW will be to develop a 3MW system at West Freugh, which is planned for 2019.


The new project will be the first of its scale in the UK and the second in the world, following a research project in Italy.



 
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dorsetknob

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CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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The world's first wind farm powered by giant kites will power more than 5,000 British homes by 2020.



Twenty of the enormous kites, which will work in pairs, will fly in 100mph (160km/h) circles at heights reaching more than 300 metres (1,000 ft) - around the same height as the Shard.




Their cyclic movement will pull a tether attached to a rotating drum on the ground that is linked to a generator, which will spin to produce electricity.

Plans for the farm's location will be announced in September as power company Kite Power Systems (KPS) bids to provide wind energy to 5,500 British homes.

The company will build a farm with 10 500kW systems spread 600 metres (2,000 ft) apart.




They would fly at almost twice the height of the blades of a typical onshore wind turbines.

KPS is also planning to fly much larger kites at sea using a 3 megawatt system designed to support kites with sails spanning 380 square metres (4,000 sqft).



the vid from post 1


Times
 
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a windmill but more hippy for the beachy flower powers :)
 

dorsetknob

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Some where in China two engineers are talking

"Great idea we can rip this idea off and make it our own by painting fighting Dragons on these kites"
 
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Sorry, I don't think this is feasible and can't see this working.
they will probably use almost as energy retracting the kite as it generates, then there is the life span of the materials that needs to be costed.
All I see is a pie in the sky idea, and some "CEO" of a miracle company getting fat and rich of taxpayer's money.
 

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Turbines make far more sense because they generate a relatively constant stream of energy. This will generate surges and not only that, it has no momentum to bridge the gaps between gusts. All around stupid idea in my opinion, not to mention being a hazard for low flying aircraft.

Only place I see this being useful is remote, temporary locations. For example, needing to produce power at night for a campsite only to be moved the next day. Then again, between this and running a diesel generator, I think diesel would win. Much easier to start/stop and much more reliable.


They're talking 3 MW planned. Diesel and natural gas equivalents. Wonder how much power the model in the video generates. Edit: guessing 1MW or less, potentially substantially less because 1 MW is transported in "two ISO containers." Video showed one truck and presumably another vehicle with the parasails.
 
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the54thvoid

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I live in Scotland. It's not always windy and where it is quite constant, the wind is pretty fierce. I'm all for green power (until we one day get fusion) but I agree some schemes are to benefit CEO's touting 'novel' ideas.
We need to get away from fossil fuels and focus very much on nuclear and green but not 'wacky green power'.
 
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