Abstract
Crosswind kite power replaces the tower and the support structure of a conventional wind turbine by a lightweight tether leading to a potentially lower levelized cost of electricity. However, in this chapter it is shown that tethering the kite to the top of a tower instead of to the ground can have advantages: Most notably, the "cosine loss" is reduced, i.e. the misalignment of the wind velocity vector and the direction of the traction power transfer. Hence, a tower can increase the power and energy yield up to about the double. Even for small tower heights compared to the kite’s operation altitude, a significant efficiency increase can be obtained. Further advantages of a tower are highlighted e.g. for the autonomous start and landing and for the wind velocity measurement. Possible tower concepts are illustrated.
Florian Bauer
CTO and Cofounder
Passionate engineer and researcher developing a new type of wind power plants – kite power plants.
Christoph Hackl
Professor
My research focuses on the electrical components of renewable and mechatronic energy.