Ideally, wind turbines should be located where they cause the least disturbance and where there are consistently high amounts of wind. Automatic stunt kites offer new possibilities to generate green energy that can complement conventional wind farms.
Both on land and at sea, space for wind turbines is limited. Offshore turbines can only be installed where the water is no deeper than 40 meters. This is an issue because close to shore where the water is not so deep, wind speeds are far lower than further out at sea. Innovative technology that reaches high into the sky and picks up high-altitude winds seems to be an optimal alternative. High-altitude winds are not only stronger, they also blow more regularly.
The Hamburg-based company SkySails developed a solution to use the power generated by huge offshore automatic stunt kites to produce clean and sustainable energy. This technology can be used where the water is too deep, or the winds blows too strongly, for a conventional wind farm.
The company offers different products, all centred around this core technology. The first model is an offshore wind park with turbines that can be anchored to depths of up to 700 meters. Onshore, the kites can be attached to a container and generate energy just as well. These kites can be up to 120m2 large! Another model involves attaching up to 400m2 huge SkySails to a ship to directly generate energy for its use. For a typical cargo ship with a length of 190m and a cargo of 50,000t, an average of 5 to 10t of oil per day can be saved. Overall the kites can reach a height of up to 800m.
In comparison: Conventional wind turbines can produce up to 700W/m2onshore and up to 1000W/m2 offshore at a height of 70m. An innovative SkySails system with a height of 400m can generate 1500W/m2 on land and even 1800W/m2 offshore! Onshore as well as offshore, up to 50% of the costs for energy production can be saved compared to conventional wind turbines.
Because the kites can be adapted to different situations, they offer a cost-effective, sustainable and flexible alternative to conventional energy production.