Laddermill-Dutch Scientists demonstrate high altitude kites to generate electricity

Transcript from the video

"Dutch scientists have successfully demonstrated a plan which could harness renewable energy from the wind.  By flying a 10-meters-square kite tethered to a generator, a team at the Delft University of Technology produced ten kilowatts of power.  The early experiment generated enough electricity to keep ten family homes running.  The researchers already have plans to test a 50-kilowatt version of their invention, called Laddermill, eventually building it to a proposed version with multiple kites that they claim could generate 100 megawatts—enough for 100,000 homes.  The blades of modern commercial windmills sit around 80 meters from the ground, where the wind speed is almost five meters a second.  At 800 meters, however, wind speed rises to seven meters a second.  But because the amount of power available from the wind is related to the cube of its speed, blades at the higher altitude could potentially generate four times the electricity.  It would be virtually impossible to build a standard turbine to take advantage of the wind at 800 meters, but kites could easily get to these heights.  Furthermore, thanks to the high-speed jet stream, countries such as the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Denmark are particularly suited to flying kites."

© 2005-2008 Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"© ™

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