You could attach the kites to the blimp though? I’d imagine you could make the ground tether/power cable cheaper and lighter by using a heavier duty transformer with higher voltage, which would be more viable on the blimp. Then have the blimp spread out a fleet of kites when at correct altitude with simpler electronics.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Theoretically you could also have a wind powered airplane drawn by kites if there is a large enough difference in wind speed between air layers. A bit nuts though :D Like the airplane is pulled forward or powered by different speed or direction crosswind above or below the plane. Or maybe something like a tandem plane. But it’s brain melting enough to implement this kite control software.
But the ultimate question is always €/kWh and how much embodied energy and material. A simple kite tethered to some deep screw foundation in the earth (or tree stump) is like almost nothing compared to a wind turbine with heavy foundation and tower that needs to resist far greater forces and be transported. This kite power, once you have a simple open design and open source software for electronics is almost low tech. All you do is fly a big kite and draw out a tether from a geared winch to produce electricity. Anyone could build like a 50 kW plant in their backyard which provides energy in the winter and different times than solar. You only need an electric motor as a winch, a simple “glider” drone and something like SoC computer or even just microcontroller. And sensors and wireless connection. The software is rather complicated with takeoff and landing and a standby hover mode right above the winch, and coordination with multiple of these kites.
One issue is regulations with air traffic so you can’t fly these kites too high.
We literally have unlimited power for almost free. Unfortunately we don’t live in a sane world.